Parkstone International

Pop Art, an abbreviation of Popular Art, is a movement that found its origins in England in the 1950s but realised its full potential in New York in the 60s. The name referred to the interest of a number of artists, such as Robert Rauschenberg (born 1925) and Jasper Johns (born 1930), in the imagery and techniques of consumerism and popular culture. Pop Art, led by the cult figure of Andy Warhol, was probably the most extraordinary innovation of 20th century art. It put art into everyday terms and so helped close the gap between "high art" and "low art." The British artist Richard Hamilton defined Pop Art as: "popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, glamorous, and Big Business." Richly documented and clearly structured, this book provides an overall view as well as a new and insightful perspective on Pop Art and the works of the artists who were at the forefront of this movement.

Edward Hopper, born in Nyack in 1882, remains one of the most important American painters. After studying to be an illustrator, he entered the famous New York School of Art, where he studied under the direction of Robert Henri, whose influence on Hoppers work was fundamental, as he was the one who encouraged Hopper to paint scenes from American life. In his works, Hopper poetically expressed the solitude of man confronted to the American way of life as it developed in the 1920s. Inspired by the movies and particularly by the various camera angles and attitudes of characters, his paintings expose the alienation of mass culture. Done in cold colours and inhabited by anonymous characters, Hoppers paintings also symbolically reflect the Great Depression. Despite his numerous trips to Europe, he remained impervious to the major trends revolutionizing painting at the time, such as cubism or surrealism. Dedicated to a very personal approach to his subjects, he modelled himself on classical painters, such as Rembrandt, Degas, or Daumier.His paintings of gas stations, motels, and scenes from everyday life represent an aesthetic testimony to individualism, wide open spaces, and the fundamental values of the American nation. He died in 1967, leaving behind a definitive imprint on American art.

Not only does this book offer a studied and insightful look into the works of one of the most technically gifted of the world's painters, but it also invites the reader to discover the bustling world of the Venetian art scene in which Titian lived and worked. Its compelling narrative will please the general public while its unique cross-analysis of the 16th century Venetian painters will interest art specialists and students.

The Devil holds the strings which move us! (Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil, 1857.) Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer... the Devil has many names and faces, all of which have always served artists as a source of inspiration. Often commissioned by religious leaders as images of fear or veneration, depending on the society, representations of the underworld served to instruct believers and lead them along the path of righteousness. For other artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch, they provided a means of denouncing the moral decrepitude of one s contemporaries. In the same way, literature dealing with the Devil has long offered inspiration to artists wishing to exorcise evil through images, especially the works of Dante and Goethe. In the 19th century, romanticism, attracted by the mysterious and expressive potential of the theme, continued to glorify the malevolent. Auguste Rodin s The Gates of Hell, the monumental, tormented work of a lifetime, perfectly illustrates this passion for evil, but also reveals the reason for this fascination. Indeed, what could be more captivating for a man than to test his mastery by evoking the beauty of the ugly and the diabolic?

Contents: Boyhood 1757-1771, Apprenticeship and Marriage, Lyrical Poems, Poland Street and the Early Prophecies, Lambeth, Blake's Ideas on Art, Felpham with Hayley, Milton and Jerusalem, London Once More, Disciples and Death, Blake and the Sublime.

The unconventional movement of American Realism allowed artists to break free from the established traditions of art in America and enabled the birth of a true national artistic identity. Through detailed descriptions of both the strong personalities and the artistic exchanges marking this movement, Souter shows the reader how these artists radically altered the art of their time and forever impacted the history of art.

Art and Biography of JMW Turner. Beautifully illustrated with rich color plates

The Dada movement and then the Surrealists appeared in the First World War aftermath with a bang: revolution of thought, creativity, and the wish to break away from the past and all that was left in ruins. This refusal to integrate into the Bourgeois society lead Georg Grosz to remark of Dada, "it's the end of-isms." Breton asserted that Dada does not produce perspective, "a machine which functions full steam, but where it remains to be seen how it can feed itself." Surrealism emerged amidst such feeling. These artists often changed from one movement to another. They were united by their superior intellectualism and the common goal to break from the norm. Describing Dada with its dynamic free-thinkers, and the Surrealists with their aversive resistance to the system, the author brings a new approach which strives to be relative and truthful. Provocation and cultural revolution: Dada and the Surrealists, aren't they above all just a direct product of creative individualism in this unsettled period?

The Bauhaus movement is one of the most significant and consequential cultural emergences of the twentieth century. Walter Gropius founded this institute of design in 1919 in Weimar and it was effective in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin. The teachings of the Bauhaus in design are still observed in today's architecture and design schools but also in general art classes. The products of the Bauhaus, such as Marcel Breuer's well-known steel pipe furniture, became inexpensive classic design standards. The Bauhaus buildings have made architectural history and now belong to the UNESCO world heritage. This book features an overview of the history of the Bauhaus, served by a rich image documentation, and sheds light on its evolution and connection with other movements, and renders the Bauhaus traceable and understandable to the reader.

Katsushika Hokusai is without a doubt the most famous Japanese artist known in the Western world since the middle of the nineteenth century. Reflecting the artistic expression of an isolated civilization, the works of Hokusai, one of the first Japanese artists to emerge in Europe, greatly influenced Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, such as Vincent van Gogh. Hokusai fascinates with the variety and the significance of his work which spanned almost ninety years.

The book not only displays the artist's tremendous catalogue of artworks but also discusses both his influence within the art of the 1960s and later, and his personal and artistic relationships with other major artists from the period. Offering at once a retrospective of Johns's art and a portrait of the American artistic landscape over the past sixty years, this study allows the reader to experience both the historical and contemporary significance of one of their favorite artists.

Angels, those mystical, winged figures of religion and myth, have inspired writers and artists for centuries. Included in this book are pictures of angels by the greatest classical and contemporary artists, from delicate, whimsical cupids to majestic depictions of the archangel Michael. Featuring images of these mysterious creatures that are half-child, half-supernatural being, in a convenient, portable size, Mega Square Angels will make the ideal gift.

Discover the work of Paul Cézanne, whose exploration of technique and form defined the Post-Impressionism movement in painting and set the artistic stage for the advent of Cubism. His bold use of strong colours influenced artists for generations to come and continues to surprise and delight us today. In Mega Square of this important French painter are collected in a compact volume-the perfect gift for any art enthusiast.

The Mega Square Kama Sutra is a homage to the magic of love and a universal educational manual. Thanks to the rafinement of the frescos and delicate prints, this edition is tastefully illustrated. The Mega Squares small and practical format is bound to make the perfect gift.

Paul Klee is one of those artists you can hardly classify in one movement of art history. Close to Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, he was an important member of Der Blaue Reiter, an expressionist group of painters. Later he went on to be involved in the Bauhaus and even gave painting lessons in Dessau's school. According to him, art had nothing to do with production, but was all about making things clearly visible. In his paintings, Klee's subtlety combined the tendencies of the beginning of the 20th century. To German Expressionism, he injected elements of Cubism and Orphism, sprinkling his works with a surrealistic and melancholic poetry. The author leads us through the marvels of Klee's world where each brush stroke echoes the power of colors.

Gustav Klimt was born in Austria in 1862. In his early career he received a public commission to paint a series of frescoes. He received the Gold Cross for Artistic Merit for his Burgtheater murals. However it is to the Viennese Secession that Klimt's name will most enduringly be linked. This revolutionary movement separated itself definitively from public, academic art. The artistic chaos which reigned in Vienna at the time made it an extraordinary place to live. The atmosphere of Klimt s Nuda Veritas could be likened to the slow languor of Strauss operas or to the theatre productions of Schnitzler. His paintings and the few of his drawings which were not destroyed by fire demonstrate a sensuality of rare delicacy. For Klimt All art is erotic , whether expressed through the extravagant Byzantine deco-ration of his Judith I, or through pure nudity. This book brings together Klimt's finest paintings, along with a text that demonstrates the extraordinary eclecticism of this great artist.