Thames & Hudson strana 59 z 126

As artists push further and further beyond their, and our, comfort zones, this book aims to help decipher the bizarre and often intimidating aspects of modern and contemporary art by exploring twenty works of art in terms of seven `keys'. History, biography, aesthetics, experience, theory, criticism and the market represent conventional `modes of existence' for every artwork discussed, but in a fascinating variety of ways. Simon Morley shows how twenty well-known but little-understood works of art can serve as useful springboards not only for understanding each other, but also for appreciating works by the same artists, and from the wider world of art in general. Rather than proceeding on the basis of familiar art `movements' or `-isms', Morley focuses on just twenty individual works of art, from Matisse's The Red Studio to Doris Salcedo's Untitled. Representing a variety of media, styles, subjects and intentions, being the creations of men and women of different periods and places, coming from disparate social and ethnic backgrounds, these works show a rich diversity in modern and contemporary art.

Vase design is blooming. As the vase has become one of the most universal home accessories, contemporary designers are pushing the boundaries, making vases that are not only functional, beautiful objects, but also works of art and conceptual statements. The history of design includes many significant examples of state-of-the-art vases, but the scope and quality of those that we can admire today are unprecedented. From Ted Muehling's sleek, gilded `Goose Egg' to Glithero's botanical cyanotypes on ceramic and Joogii Design's colour-shifting prisms covered in dichroic film, there are no limits to what contemporary designers can make out of what is fundamentally a container for holding flowers. This book includes important mid-century and late 20th-century vases by acclaimed artists, but primarily focuses on the 21st-century scene, with a wide international selection of emerging designers from the younger generation. Inspired by the organic world, architectural elements, artworks or geometric rules, all these designers translate their original visions into a variety of forms, blurring the lines between design, sculpture and architecture. The vases featured in this book are contemporary works of art, worthy of inclusion in museum collections - as many already are.

Focused on D1, Dublin's city centre, Eamonn Doyle's three major bodies of work, `i', `On' and `End' - with new and previously unpublished images brought together here for the first time - tell the tale of today's Dublin and, in doing so, tell a broader story of today's Ireland. Setting aside the nostalgia and cliche so often seen in `stories of Ireland', Doyle's vernacular photography is a thrill to the system, revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary to paint a striking portrait of a modern and multicultural capital city. Vivified in colour, the commonplace is seen anew, the everyday made epic as the city's inhabitants appear in stark, graphic black and white going about their daily business. Far from pedestrian, Doyle's work is the archetype of good street photography: real life brought to life through the lens and voice of the street. Punctuating the photography with specially commissioned narratives is the distinctive voice of Kevin Barry, evoking the world beyond the frame: the sights, smells, sounds and sensations of a Dubliner's daily life. Designed by Doyle's longtime collaborator Niall Sweeney, fusing contemporary Irish word and contemporary Irish image, Made in Dublin is one of the most exciting and original books of street photography in recent years.

Andrey Tarkovsky was the most important Russian filmmaker of the post-war era, and one of the world's most renowned cinematic geniuses. He directed the first five of his seven films - Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror and Stalker - in the Soviet Union, but in 1982 defected to Italy, where he made Nostalgia. His final film, The Sacrifice, was produced in Sweden in 1985. Tarkovsky's films are characterized by metaphysical themes, extended takes, an absence of conventional dramatical structure and plot, and a dream-like, visionary style of cinematography. They achieve a spiritual intensity and transcendent beauty that many consider to be without parallel. This book presents extended sequences of stills from each of the films alongside synopses and cast and crew listings. It includes reflections on Tarkovsky's work from fellow artists and writers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Ingmar Bergman, for whom Tarkovsky was `the greatest, the one who invented a new language.' Extracts from Tarkovsky's own writings and diaries offer a wealth of insights into his poetic and philosophical views on cinematography, which he described as `sculpting in time'. The book also reproduces many personal Polaroid photographs that confirm the extraordinary poetic vision of a great artist who died aged only 54, but who remains a potent influence on artists and filmmakers today.

Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550 and 1569) is a classic of cultural history. A monumental assembly of artists' lives from Giotto to Michelangelo, it paints a vivid picture of the progress of art in the hands of individual masters. No Life is more vivid than that of Leonardo, a near-contemporary of Vasari - not even Vasari's account of Michelangelo, whom he knew and idolized. This beautiful edition offers a literary translation that respects the 16th-century Italian, transposing Vasari's vocabulary into its modern equivalent. Martin Kemp is an eminent scholar, who has written on the vocabulary of Renaissance writings on art, and has co-translated Leonardo on Painting and Leonardo's Codex Leicester. Translated in partnership with Lucy Russell, the text will be the first to cover both the 1550 edition and the expanded version of 1568, and the first to integrate the texts of the two editions on the page. Discreet endnotes will provide succinct comments in the light of modern knowledge of Leonardo's career. Illustrated with all the works of art discussed by Vasari and a selection of Leonardo's studies of science and technology, this will be the perfect accompaniment to Leonardo's 500th anniversary celebrations.

Did you know that the Egyptians created the first synthetic colour; or that the noblest purple comes from a predatory sea snail? Throughout history, artist pigments have been made from deadly metals, poisonous minerals, urine, cow dung, and even crushed insects. From grinding down beetles and burning animal bones to alchemy and pure luck, Chromatopia reveals the origin stories behind over fifty of history's most vivid colour pigments. Spanning the ancient world to modern leaps in technology, this is the book for the artist, the history buff, the science lover and the design fanatic.

Like every era, the Renaissance brims with stories. In this book, Robert Davis and Beth Lindsmith highlight dozens of notable lives from between 1400 and 1600. They bring to life wily politicians, eccentric scientists, fiery rebels and stolid reactionaries, as well as a pornographer, an acrobat, an actress, a poetic prostitute, a star comedian and a least one very fretful mother. Some names - Leonardo, Luther, Medici and Machiavelli - are famous, but many others will be new to general readers. Their stories, ninety-four in all, remind us that history is more than dates and abstract concepts: it also arises from the lives of countless individual men and women.

Open this book and discover the dazzling magic of the moon! Find out where it came from, why it seems to change shape, how its power affects the earth, and what causes an eclipse. Shoot into space with the Saturn V rocket and travel back in time to join the first men on the moon...

Anja Niemi: In Character is the first career retrospective/monograph by one of the most exciting talents working in contemporary photography, whose work has emerged as a distinctive force within the venerable tradition of conceptual self-portraiture. A photo-artist who works alone - photographing, staging and acting out the characters in all of her images - Niemi is a constant presence, in character, in her work, developing complex, nuanced narratives through evocative costume and styling, her characters framed and formed within meticulously staged mise-en-scene. In her bewitching `Darlene & Me' series, for example, she reconfigures the concept of the Hitchcock blonde within a pristine Lynchian landscape for her own visual pleasure - and ours - while in `She Could Have Been A Cowboy' she turns the lens to a life lived under the constraints of conformity. Anja Niemi is now at the `breakout moment' in her career, having had exhibitions in Amsterdam, London, New York, Oslo and Paris, and with her first museum retrospective show opening at Fotografiska Museum in Stockholm in February 2019. With over 100 photographs organized into the six series that have marked Niemi's career to date, supported by an essay and interview by Max Houghton, Anja Niemi: In Character is the perfect introduction for those encountering Niemi's work for the first time, and a comprehensive retrospective of her career to date for her long-time followers.

Chocolate - `the food of the Gods' - has had a long and eventful history. Its story is expertly told here by the doyen of Maya studies, Michael Coe, and his late wife, Sophie. The book begins 3,000 years ago in the Mexican jungles and goes on to draw on aspects of archaeology, botany and socio-economics. Used as currency and traded by the Aztecs, chocolate arrived in Europe via the conquistadors, and was soon a favourite drink with aristocrats. By the 19th century and industrialization, chocolate became a food for the masses - until its revival in our own time as a luxury item. Chocolate has also been giving up some of its secrets to modern neuroscientists, who have been investigating how flavour perception is mediated by the human brain. And, finally, the book closes with two contemporary accounts of how chocolate manufacturers have (or have not) been dealing with the ethical side of the industry.

A comprehensive practice-based guide to the art of drawing, Drawing: A Complete Guide provides a chapter-by-chapter overview of key elements of drawing (such as line, shape, tone and value) before addressing the different genres (such as still life and portraiture). Written in an accessible and encouraging manner, Drawing: A Complete Guide seeks to build the learner's confidence in artistic exploration as well as developing his or her practical abilities. An introductory chapter makes the case that anyone can draw, while the concluding chapter, `Looking at Drawings: Critical Thinking and Critiques', equips learners with the necessary critical tools to develop their craft independently. Richly illustrated with examples of artists' drawings and the author's own works, Drawing: A Complete Guide also includes student work to make the practice of drawing more accessible and achievable.

This Empty World, Nick Brandt's new monograph, features a series of dramatically staged photographs that bring together and reveal the animals and people of East Africa as the victims of environmental degradation in an emotionally powerful, cinematic way. Moving into colour photography for the first time, the work is both a technical tour-de-force and a massively ambitious project in which several sets are constructed on a scale typically only seen in film production. Each panoramic image is a combination of two moments in time, almost all of them captured weeks apart from the exact same camera position. Brandt first builds and lights a partial set, then waits for the animals that inhabit the region to enter the frame. Once captured on camera, the full set is built with the camera remaining fixed in place. The sets include bridge and highway construction sites, a petrol station, a bus station and even a dead forest. Completing the scene with a huge cast drawn from local communities, Brandt then photographs the second sequence. The final large scale prints are a composite of the two intricately plotted elements. Viewed as a whole, the images vividly illustrate a world in which, overwhelmed by runaway human development, there is no longer space for animals to survive, and beg the question: what kind of world will we live in when stripped of its natural wonders. Photographed on unprotected, inhabited Maasai community land, after the sets were removed and their elements recycled, no evidence of the images now remains in the landscape.

The bold, distinctive style of Paula Rego's paintings has acquired for her not only an ever-increasing critical reputation but also an unusually large and enthusiastic following. Her be-ribboned little-girl heroines and fairy-tale characters seem firmly rooted in childhood, yet the innocence of this art is darkened by the underlying themes of power, domination and rebellion, sexuality and gender, that run through her work. Here Rego has turned to the nursery rhyme as a source for her imagery. It is a genre that perfectly complements her art; full of double meanings, rhymes are written from a child's perspective but are open to adult interpretation. Twenty-six well-known nursery rhymes are accompanied by a series of etchings which she has executed spontaneously as a child might, drawing directly on the plate without preparatory planning. Following the traditions of earlier artists such as Beatrix Potter, she treats the fantastic realistically, dressing animals in human costume and using dream-like dislocations of scale. These are wonderfully comic and rich illustrations with a hint of the sinister, that turn classic nursery rhymes into colourful stories about folly and delusion, cruelty, convention and sex.

Lively and informative, The World Atlas of Tattoo is a superbly illustrated and compelling reference book that, through examining the meeting point between tattoo artists and their personal understanding of their environment, presents a well-informed and nuanced account of what has become a widespread art practice. Organized geographically, each section is introduced by a short historical overview of the types of tattooing traditionally practised in that area of the world, enabling the reader to trace historical threads in the careers of some of the profiled tattooers, as well as marvel at how other artists have managed to create novel forms of tattooing that transcend any previous context. The book also tracks the movement of styles from their indigenous settings to diasporic communities, where they have often been transformed into creative, multicultural, hybrid designs. Written by an international team of scholars, historians and journalists, this comprehensive atlas will enlighten and excite anyone who is passionate about tattoo art in its many forms worldwide.

In this clear and evocative account, John Gaskin unfolds the thinking about nature, life, death and other worlds that informed the culture and society of the Classical world, drawing out its interest for modern readers. Witty sketches and diagrams enliven the story, which runs from Homeric Greece to the banning of pagan religions in ad 391. The book concludes with a gazetteer describing notable sites and the people and ideas connected with them, making it an ideal companion for visitors to Classical ruins and for all armchair travellers curious to explore life's big questions.

On the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525/30-1569) the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is mounting the first-ever large monograph exhibition of the leading Netherlandish painter of the 16th century. Only around forty paintings by Bruegel have survived, which is why museums and private collectors are right to count Bruegel's paintings among their most precious and fragile holdings. Bruegel's popularity continues to be informed by his often socio-critical but always varied, entertaining and powerful compositions. They invite the spectator both to begin an artistic discourse with the work and to reflect on the complexity of its content. This spectacular catalogue invites readers to immerse themselves in the world of the Netherlandish master. The results of recent research on materials and techniques allow us to focus on Bruegel's creative process: his perfect handling and execution, his virtuoso use of colour and his draughtsmanship - these are some of the many mysteries of this great artist. Bruegel's inventions and stories create artworks with a timeless power.