Florian Heine

The first portrait; the first realistic animal drawing; the first night-time scene; the first nude study; the first still life. These groundbreaking moments and others are closely explored in twenty-five chapters that help the general reader and art lover alike understand how innovation spurred artistic growth through the years and around the world. Each chapter opens with a specific artist or work that introduced a new concept and includes examples of masterpieces that exemplify them. Colourful illustrations and lively texts show how each concept influenced other contemporary works as well as future generations. For example, self-portraits painted by Durer, van Gogh, and even Andy Warhol can be traced back to the first recorded self-portrait by Jan van Eyck. A Miraculous Draught of Fishes, by fifteenth-century artist Konrad Witz, paved the way for later landscapes by El Greco, Constable, and Wyeth. Arranged chronologically, the chapters in the book can be studied individually to deepen our understanding of a particular aspect of art or as a whole - to appreciate the ever-changing patterns of artistic development.

Chronologically arranged, each chapter focuses on a particular work or idea that changed the course of photography. Presented in beautiful spreads and with informative text, the book opens with photography's genesis in the form of the camera obscura. Centuries later, Daguerre, Niepce, and Talbot invented their own means of capturing light on paper. The book covers groundbreaking genres such as still life, landscape, portraiture and nudes. Sections on the role of photography in journalism illustrate how the camera's presence on battlefields, city streets, and factories helped inform and reform the modern world. Fashion, animals, surrealism, and staged portraits are also explored. Perfect for perusing or reading from cover to cover, this book illustrates how photography developed from a concept to a world-changing force - one that attempted to shed light on truth but which can also obscure and alter reality in dazzling ways.

This spellbinding look at the history and development of illusionistic art reveals wide-ranging techniques that have piqued the public's fascination with this medium. Beautifully reproduced, the images featured in the book includes centuries-old work such as the scenery at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy, and the ceiling frescos at the Wurzburg Residence in Germany, that showcase processes such as trompe l'oeil and anamorphosis. It also features work from the 20th and 21st centuries, including Rene Magritte's classic surrealist works; M. C. Escher's magical and mathematically precise drawings; the seemingly undulating paintings of Bridget Riley; the manipulated photography of Andreas Gursky; Duane Hanson's eerily lifelike sculptures; JR's larger-than-life portrait photographs; and George Rousse's mind- bending constructions. The book also has examples of amazing street art including subway graffiti and a sidewalk painting that makes pedestrians think twice. This extraordinary and informative guide to all kinds of artistic trickery will satisfy scholars as well as everyday fans.