The Arts: General Issues Books

A poignant reminder of the blessings life holds, this gift book features the enchanting paintings of Thomas Kinkade with accompanying quotations on the bounty of God's gifts.Author BiographyThomas Kinkade, the celebrated Painter of Light, is the most widely collected living artist in the world. His ...

A survivor of the 1916 torpedo attack on a Cross channel ferry, Sussex, recognised Spanish composer Granados in a lifeboat, his wife in the water. Granados dived in to save her and perished. Subsequently, the Sussex incident became a pawn in the propaganda battle of WW1. Extensive research into fami...

Art critic and scholar Philippe Dagen approaches Picasso as a subject through a series of questions. What does it mean to be an artist in the twentieth century? What does it mean to be an artist in the time of newspapers and museums, in a time when the art market has expanded to reach the entire wes...

In this sweeping collection of essays, Edmund Capon describes his lifelong fascination with art and the artists who, over centuries, have enlightened us and challenged the way we see the world. He shares his passion for topics as diverse as the art of China and the Renaissance Old Masters, talks of ...

A renowned gallerist and collector, the late Ileana Sonnabend acquired an impressive collection of seminal work directly from the Warhol studio at the time of its making. Sonnabend was an early and fervent supporter of Warhol, and held three important exhibitions of his work at her Paris gallery, in...

The beginning of a shoot can be an awkward time, especially for nude work. As a photographer you have likely spent a great deal of time learning to use your camera, lights, getting backgrounds or locations, finding a model. Finally the equipment is set up, she is front of the camera and then comes t...

As a novelist, essayist, and cultural historian, John Berger is a writer of dazzling eloquence and arresting insight whose work amounts to a subtle, powerful critique of the canons of our civilization. In About Looking he explores our role as observers to reveal new layers of meaning in what we see....

This is the first study of a fascinating, international phenomenon in the art of the past century. 'Naked portraiture' is an original hybrid of the traditional genres of the nude and portrait, and has been created by an astonishing range of major artists, in many different media and in a variety of ...

From Obey to Obama and all that s in between, Supply & Demand, The Art of Shepard Fairey - 20th Anniversary Edition expands upon the previous version of this book and adds 100 new pages of illustrations and text to showcase Fairey s entire body of work, a massive retrospective covering 20 colorful y...

The popularity of manga, Japanese cartooning, continues to grow, inspiring interest in learning how to draw this exciting style of comics. "Comickers Art: Create Amazing Manga Characters" is the second volume in the popular "Comickers Art" series, delves deep into the creative process, showing aspir...

Learning to Look at Paintings is an accessible guide to the study and appraisal of paintings, drawings and prints. Mary Acton shows how you can develop visual, analytical and historical skills in learning to look at and understand an image by analysing how it works, what its pictorial elements are a...

How do we see the world around us? "The Penguin on Design" series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever. "Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak." "But, there is also another sense in...

Tom Wesselmann was the most unabashedly sexual of the canonical pop artists. Yet the blatancy of his highly stylized figures, in their cool, slick renderings, makes them subtle and opens up his images to multiple readings. This new volume with 270 illustrations covers the richness and wit of Tom Wes...

One of the most important works of cultural theory ever written, Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking essay explores how the age of mass media means audiences can listen to or see a work of art repeatedly - and what the troubling social and political implications of this are. Throughout history, some bo...

For the land artist, the whole planet is an artist's studio. The land artist ranges over the whole globe. A desert, a beach, a field, a forest becomes a studio, a place of creative activity. This means the very texture and colour and shape and dampness and springiness and strength and size of moss, ...

Based on dozens of interviews and previously unpublished material, Factory Made is the most comprehensive account to date of the artistic aura in the 60s. During the period Warhol was producing his most iconic art: Marilyn, Campbell Soup and Brillo boxes, Steven Watson shows how the ever-changing ca...

The second revised edition of this classic book integrates text and pictures more clearly than in previous editions. Further illustrations have been added to include more colour diagrams and examples of current work done by students in recent years. The revisions were made by the author's widow, a l...

Film: The Key Concepts presents a coherent, clear and exciting overview of film theory for beginning readers. The book takes the reader through the often conflicting analyses that make up film theory, illustrating arguments with examples from mainstream and independent films. Concise and comprehensi...

Graphic novels have entered the mainstream and become the hot category for both established professionals and aspiring artists. From super-heroes to werewolves, Hollywood is increasingly looking toward graphic novels to adapt into films..."V For Vendetta", "Road To Perdition", "A History of Violence...

More than a century after its beginnings, modernism still has the power to shock, alienate or challenge readers. Modernist art and literature remain thought of as complex and difficult. This introduction explains in a readable, lively style how modernism emerged, how it is defined, and how it develo...

This gorgeous book delves into the elusive world of traditional Japanese tattooing. The Samurai spirit, Bushido, is an integral component of Japanese tattooing that is traced through the imagery and interpersonal dynamics of this veiled subculture. The eloquent text is based largely on Takahiro Kita...

Drawing on a range of interiors worldwide, this book illustrates the timeless appeal of older houses, and what we can learn from them. Organized by theme - entertaining, living, sleeping, cooking, bathing and outdoor rooms - the book revolves around how modern lifestyles have changed our domestic ar...

A pioneering work in the movement to free art from its traditional bonds to material reality, this book is one of the most important documents in the history of modern art. Written by the famous nonobjective painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), it explains Kandinsky's own theory of painting and cr...

The central argument of "Chromophobia" is that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through colour - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge colour, either by making it the property of some 'fore...

"Art" has always been contested terrain, whether the object in question is a medieval tapestry or Duchamp's "Fountain." But questions about the categories of "art" and "art history" acquired increased urgency during the 1970s, when new developments in critical theory and other intellectual projects ...

This book demystifies its subject for professionals and students alike. It inspires confidence in colour's application to graphic design, illustration, painting, textile art, and textile design. In addition to covering the fundamentals of colour theory, the author provides assignments that guide the...

Designers, photographers, and fashion editors all agree that the street is the cauldron of fashion inspiration. The clothes, the accessories, and the looks developed by (particularly young) people in different cities today is both an inspiration to the mainstream fashion world, and a phenomenon dist...

This thought-provoking book explores the increasing visibility of women's art in Britain, Europe and America. * Considers the work of American artists Martha Rosler and Kara Walker, Irish artist Alice Maher, British artists Lubaina Himid, Christine Borland, Sarah Lucas, Cornelia Parker, Gillian Wear...

Embodying the entire system of Robert Henris teaching, The Art Spirit contains much valuable advice, critical comment, and inspiration to every student of the arts.Author BiographyRobert Henri was born in Cincinnati in 1865 and died in 1929. He led the Ashcan School movement in art, and attracted a ...

Written with clarity, wit, and rigor, The Philosophy of Art provides an incisive account of the core topics in the field. * The first volume in the new Foundations of the Philosophy of the Arts series, designed to provide crisp introductions to the fundamental general questions about art, as well as...

Postmodernism has been a buzzword in contemporary society for the last decade. But how can it be defined? In this Very Short Introduction Christopher Butler challenges and explores the key ideas of postmodernists, and their engagement with theory, literature, the visual arts, film, architecture, and...

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this Very Short Introduction Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, m...

A bestseller for over a decade, "The Arts Good Study Guide" has helped over 100,000 students. For the second edition, the book has been thoroughly revised and expanded to address the challenges of studying in a fast-changing world where computers and the internet have become basic study tools. Devel...

The breathtakingly beautiful art created deep inside the caves of western Europe in the late Ice Age provokes awe and wonder in equal measure. What do these animals and symbols, depicted on the walls of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, tell us about the nature of the ancestral mind? How ...

The best graphic design does more than capture attention and make the audience linger. It prolongs the encounter, compelling the reader not only to notice, but to remember. This book is about making graphics memorable by using witty thinking. It argues that ideas which happen in the mind, stay in th...

A title in the popular RSPCA pet care series, which is being relaunched with completely revised and updated content and fresh new covers. Written by animal experts, these illustrated guides provide all the practical advice needed to care for your pet. This easy-to-use family guide is full of helpful...