Pepe Karmel

Now available in paperback, this is a radically new approach to the understanding of abstract art, expanded to include sixteen new contemporary artists from six continents, and an emphasis on textile as abstract. In his fresh take on abstract art, now available in paperback and expanded to include sixteen new contemporary artists from six continents, noted art historian Pepe Karmel chronicles the movement from a global perspective, while embedding abstraction in a recognizable reality. Moving beyond the canonical terrain of abstract art, the author demonstrates how artists from around the world have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural and spiritual experience. Karmel builds this fresh approach to abstract art around five inclusive themes: body, landscape, cosmology, architecture and man--made signs and patterns. In the process, this history develops a series of narratives that go far beyond the established figures and movements traditionally associated with abstract art. Each narrative is complemented by a number of featured abstract works, arranged in thought--provoking pairings with accompanying extended captions that provide an in--depth analysis. This wide--ranging examination incorporates work from Asia, Australia, Africa and South America, as well as Europe and North America, through artists ranging from Wu Guanzhong, Joan Miró and Jackson Pollock to Hilma af Klint and Odili Donald Odita. Breaking new ground, Karmel has forged a new history of this key art movement.

A major new survey that offers fresh insights on artworks by one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso, written by a leading authority on the master. As one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) artistic achievements are unparalleled. This important new introductory monograph, released to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death, presents the beauty, power, and multiplicity of Picasso’s work across his paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, and offers fresh analysis of the work of this great master for a twenty-first-century audience. Since the 1980s, most books and exhibitions on Picasso have focused on the artist’s personal relationships, specifically on the representation of his wives and mistresses. Art historian and curator Pepe Karmel shifts the debate by considering Picasso’s works first and foremost as art, explaining how the artist’s style has evolved over the course of seven decades, introducing visual languages and narratives that have transformed modern art. Arranged chronologically by themes and movements, Looking at Picasso is profusely illustrated with renowned paintings, such as the provocative Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and the monumental war piece Guernica, as well as lesser-known works, including Picasso’s animal sculptures and his animated reinterpretation of Velázquez’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Las Meninas. Numerous exhibitions planned for 2023 will coincide with this important and accessible volume. 124 color illustrations

Taking a radically new approach to the history of abstract painting, Pepe Karmel applies a scholarly yet fresh vision to reconsider the history of abstraction from a global perspective and to demonstrate that abstraction is embedded in the real world. Moving beyond the orthodox canonical terrain of abstract art, he surveys artists from across the globe, examining their work from the point of view of content rather than form. Previous writers have approached the history of abstraction as a series of movements solving a series of formal problems. In contrast, Karmel focuses on the subject matter of abstract art, showing how artists have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural and spiritual experience. An introductory discussion of the work of the early modern pioneers of abstraction opens up into a completely new approach to abstract art based around five inclusive themes - the body, the landscape, the cosmos, architecture, and the repertory of man-made signs and patterns - each of which has its own chapter. Starting from a figurative example, Karmel works outwards to develop a series of narratives that go far beyond the established figures and movements traditionally associated with abstract art. Each narrative is complemented by a number of 'featured' abstract works, which provide an in-depth illustration of the breadth of Karmel's distinctive vision. A wide-ranging examination of topics - from embryos to the surface of skin, from vortexes to waves, planets to star charts, towers to windows - is interwoven with detailed analysis of works by established figures like Joan Miro and Jackson Pollock alongside pieces by lesser-known artists such as Wu Guanzhong, Hilma af Klint and Odili Donald Odita.