Closer to Vermeer
Even 350 years after his death, Johannes Vermeer remains an inexhaustible source of fascination for art lovers and researchers alike. Closer to Vermeer provides a captivating analysis of research conducted during and after the Rijksmuseum's blockbuster 2023 Vermeer exhibition.The book reveals new insights into Vermeer's creative process, materials, and painting techniques, exploring the meaning of his works and his evolving fame. It also addresses intriguing questions about the maps in his interiors, the role of the camera obscura, his choice of materials, and newly discovered documents about his patrons.Richly illustrated, this book offers both art historians and passionate art lovers a unique glimpse into Vermeer's life and work and serves as an essential reference for future research on Vermeer.
"Liebe Mutti!"
Israeli artist Inbar Chotzen learnt only late in life that some of her ancestors were victims of Nazi persecution. She heard about the history of her Berlin relatives through their estate, which is preserved in the House of the Wannsee Conference. In addition to eight photo albums recording the lives of the parents and four sons between 1920 and 1942, there are 369 postcards sent by deported family members from Theresienstadt camp to their mother in Berlin. Inbar Chotzen approaches these lost lives by painting scenes from their everyday existence on the digitised cards - a silent dialogue with the past. This book presents the artworks and evidence of the persecution on which they are based, together with detailed historical background. One of the most extensive collections of postcards from Theresienstadt - a unique testimony to the Chotzen family The story of the Holocaust told through the moving fate of a Jewish family who stood shoulder to shoulder until the end Exhibition: Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee, Berlin, September 20, 2025 to January 19, 2026
Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger
Discover the harmony between the experimental sculptures of Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger. Sculptures by two impressive artists, both inspired by Rodin, emerge from the shadow cast by their great role model. This book reveals how the works of Camille Claudel (1864-1943) and Bernhard Hoetger (1874-1949) paved the way for sculpture to enter the modern age. The artistic freedom of the avant-garde, including the emerging Art Nouveau, can be seen in their forms and ideals. Following their joint exhibition in 1905 in the Galerie Eug癡ne Blot in Paris, this volume unites the works of the two artists again. The lavishly illustrated publication presents the encounter between the two sculptors in the French art scene at the dawn of the modern age. Their experimentation with new materials and techniques enabled them to break out of the established patterns of artistic creativity.
Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California
A celebration of the joyful power of African American quilts, featuring images of over 100 quilts, new research and essaysPublished with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). The first publication dedicated to historical African American quilts in California, Routed West traces the flow and flourishing of quilts in the context of the Second Great Migration from 1940 to 1970. As millions of African Americans sought greater economic opportunities and freedom outside of the American South, hundreds of thousands initially arrived in the Golden State. Many migrants carried quilts as functional objects and physical reminders of the homes they left behind. They also brought their quiltmaking skills, extending the art form's Southern roots to the western United States in the later part of the 20th century.Featuring vibrant images of over 100 quilts by nearly 90 individuals--the majority of whom are women and have ties to the San Francisco Bay Area--and new research, Routed West honors the resilience, self-determination, collective care and creative ingenuity of this distinctive migrant generation. Essays by scholars, curators, quilt historians and artists celebrate the joyful power of African American quilts as objects of beauty, memory and cultural reclamation within Black life, and explore the role of museums in their stewardship and preservation. This book accompanies a group exhibition of artworks drawn from the African American quilt collection at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
Distant Early Warning Systems
Art, climate change, and geopolitics at a time of rapid social and technological change. The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska and the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It intended to detect incoming bombers of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and provide early warning of any sea and land invasion. Today, the Arctic is seen as a place primed for data storage and vaults--doomsday structures with a utilitarian vernacular of architecture, protecting the "knowledge" of places further south rather than recognizing the local presence and expertise of place and Indigenous lifeways and Indigenous science. This book looks at the role of artists as early warning systems and explores the ways we connect and disconnect place and people through technology and the ideas of boundaries. With the DEW Line as a framework, Julie Decker examines ideologies of warning. The DEW Line is a symbol of both the past and future. Today, we think about planetary boundaries, the boundaries of survival, and other human limits.
Icons of the Fantastic
"The Korshak Collection is a portrait and biography of a man and his family, who once looked upon the dark skies and saw Immortals, gods hunting in the storm clouds. Stephen Korshak decided to dedicate his life to tell us all how the thunder sounded and preserve the outlines of the cosmos for the awe of us all. Enjoy, believe--be amazed." --Guillermo del Toro, from the ForewordIcons of the Fantastic: Illustrations of Imaginative Literature from the Korshak Collection features artwork by pioneering artists from over 160 years of published works of science fiction and fantasy. The illustrations in the collection appeared on the covers of timeless novels such as the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs and classic pulp magazines from the 1930s through 1960s, such as Amazing Stories and Weird Tales. They accompany images of mischievous satyrs, ethereal mermaids, and spell-casting witches for texts ranging from The Tempest, Don Quixote, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to works by Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells. Alongside essays about famous illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Aubrey Beardsley, contributors engage in a critical reassessment of understudied artists such as Jos矇 Segrelles, Wladyslaw Benda, Margaret Brundage, and Hannes Bok. The book includes a foreword by Guillermo del Toro, a preface by Kevin J. Anderson, an introduction by Michael Dirda, and an interview with renowned contemporary illustration artist Michael Whelan.
Novel Ecologies
Tracing the convergence of ecology and engineering over the last three decades, this book pinpoints a new environmental paradigm that the author calls Nature Remade. Allison Carruth's Novel Ecologies shows how the tech industry has taken up the wilderness mythologies that shaped one strain of American environmentalism over the last century. Calling this twenty-first-century environmental imagination Nature Remade, Carruth describes a distinctly West Coast framework that is at once nostalgic and futuristic. Through three case studies (synthetic wildlife, the digital cloud, and space colonization), the book shows Nature Remade to be a quasi-religious belief in venture capitalism and big tech. This paradigm thus imagines a future in which species, ecosystems, and entire planets are re-generated and re-created through engineering. Novel Ecologies challenges the conviction that climate change and other environmental crises must be met with ever larger-scale forms of technological intervention. Against the new worlds conjured by Google, Meta, Open AI, Amazon, SpaceX, and a host of lesser-known start-ups, Carruth marshals writers and artists who imagine provisionally hopeful environmental futures while refusing to forget the histories that have made the world what it is. On this track of the book, Carruth discusses the works of Octavia Butler, Becky Chambers, Jennifer Egan, Ruth Ozeki, Craig Santos Perez, Tracy K. Smith, Jeff VanderMeer, Saya Woolfalk, and many more. Their novels, poems, installation artworks, and expressive media offer a speculative world built on livable communities rather than engineered lifeforms.
Let It Grow Again
An expansive demonstration of the tree in its symbolic and formal complexity and its vast number of representations in artFrom the Dutch landscape painters to the French Impressionists, and from Piet Mondrian to Joseph Beuys, Let It Grow Again weaves together artworks from an extraordinary array of movements to trace the life of the tree through centuries of art history.
Painting With the Colors of the Wind
These paintings are in a style between impressionist and modern. I studied literature for many years and have published several novels. I taught myself how to paint and have enjoyed it greatly.
Sowing Unrest
The past, present and future of political movements across the rural/urban divide, as seen through the lens of visual cultureHow do people in rural areas organize to effect change in society? Sowing Unrest is published on the occasion of the third Biennale Matter of Art in Prague, and unites two curatorial threads into one discourse: the legacy of worker's movements and a history of rural change.
Donation Glicksman
Exploring a pioneering curator's collection of cutting-edge '60s and '70s California artThe curator Hal Glicksman (born 1937) was a central figure in the development of the Californian art scene in the 1960s and 1970s. The Glicksman collection, gifted to MAMCO and Kunsthaus Biel Centre d'art Bienne (KBCB) in 2023 and documented in this volume, provides insight into the prevailing culture of Los Angeles and its famous and lesser-known figures. As a student, Glicksman witnessed firsthand the Beat Generation (George Herms, Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner) and came into contact with artists such as Ben Talbert and Fred Mason. He curated bold exhibitions of site-specific art projects (Michael Asher, Judy Chicago, Tom Eatherton, Bruce Nauman, Larry Bell, Peter Alexander, Jane Reynolds, Daniel Buren), while organizing shows of assemblage and Chicano art. Glicksman and his wife were also close companions of Guy de Cointet, whose work sits at the crossroads of performance and Conceptual art.
How Can We Gather Now?
Community-sourced solutions on intentional gathering as devised by artists, writers and activistsThe publication How can we gather now? documents an experimental symposium that took place from March 31 to April 2, 2023, in Washington, DC, around the topic of gathering. Produced by Washington Project for the Arts and codirected by Asad Raza and Prem Krishnammurthy, it brought together hundreds of artists, creatives and organizers from all over the world. This publication acts as a performance of the event, collecting a rich variety of modes including transcriptions from conversations, poetry, essays, film stills, recipes and artworks.Contributors include: adrienne maree brown, Asad Raza, Ayana Zaire Cotton, Cynthia Connolly, Ed Halter, Emily Verla Bovino, Fabiola Ching, Farrah Skeiky, Hope Ginsburg, Jonathan Yu, Leigh Ledare, Lenka Clayton & Phillip Andrew Lewis, Mayah Monet Lovell, McKenzie Grant-Gordon, Melani N. Douglass, Mindy Seu, Mojdeh Rezaeipour, Naoco Wowsugi, Philippe Parreno, Prem Krishnamurthy, Ren矇e Green, Richard D. Bartlett & Natalia Lombardo, Sarah Morris, Shiraz Abdullahi Gallab, Stefanie Hessler, Tiffany Sia, Tony Cokes.
Sexy Record Covers
An album cover collection exploring 70 years of surprising, shocking and frankly hilarious nude and provocative art. Sexy covers sold all musical genres, from funk to punk, and the silly German schlager. Comedy albums range from mid-century "stag party" pin-ups to the undeniably raunchy '70s sensation, Blowfly. Steamy, seamy and adults only.
Transformative Objects and the Aesthetics of Play
This book considers the sculpture of Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) in light of psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott's (1896-1971) radical ideas regarding transitional objects, potential space, and play, offering a model for exploring the complex and psychologically evocative work Bourgeois produced from 1947 to 2000. Critical concepts from British object relational theories - destruction, reparation, integration, relationality and play - drawn from the writings of Winnicott, Melanie Klein, Marion Milner, and Christopher Bollas, among others, bear upon the decades-long study of psychoanalysis Bourgeois brought to her sculptural production that was symbolic, metaphorical, and most importantly, useful. The book demonstrates how Bourgeois's transformative sculptural objects and environments are invested in object relations, both psychical and tangible, and explores Bourgeois's contention that the observer physically engage with the intricate sculptural objects and architectural spaces she produced. Each chapter focuses on a key body of work - Femme Maison, Personages, Lairs, Janus, and Cells - examining how these imaginative and playful objects are staged as embodied encounters in space and time to invoke the mutuality, reciprocity, and ambivalence of our object relationships. Weaving a tapestry of aesthetic, cultural, and psychological encounters, Transformative Objects and the Aesthetics of Play addresses critical relationships among Bourgeois's work and that of other artists from Pieter Brueghel to Eva Hesse. It brings together practical, archival, and theoretical material, offering close examinations of historically situated objects and analyses of their complex affects and spatiality. Gathering critical perspectives from psychoanalysis, cultural analysis, feminist, queer, literary and affect studies, the book extends its specific art historical scope to investigate the crucial roles that art and cultural experience assume in everyday life.
Ukiyo-E (Bilingual Guide to Japan)
A pocket-sized Japanese-English visual guide covering masterpieces by world-renowned artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. Each chapter is dedicated to a different facet of Japanese culture, including famous landmarks, traditional cuisine, kabuki theater, geisha, and adorable cats. Journey through the heart of Japan in around 50 exceptional woodblock prints with this essential bilingual companion to the country's rich cultural heritage.
Indigenous Tattoo Traditions
A beautifully illustrated history of Indigenous tattooing practices around the world Tattooing within Indigenous communities is a time-honored practice that binds the tattoo recipient to a deeply felt collective history. More than mere decoration, tattoos embody cultural values, ancestral ties, and spiritual beliefs. Indigenous Tattoo Traditions captures ancient tribal tattooing practices and their contemporary resurgence, highlighting a beautiful aspect of humanity's shared cultural heritage. Transporting readers through history, Lars Krutak explores the art and customs of tattooing across numerous ancestral lands, including Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, the Arctic, Oceania, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Siberia. He illustrates how tattoos function as a form of writing that defines and structures community life, performing as rites of passage, symbols of rank, and signs of marital or religious devotion, among other facets of culture. We are introduced to the heavily tattooed Li women of China's Hainan Island with their elaborate facial and body tattoos, the bold indelible markings of Papua New Guinea's Indigenous peoples, and innovative cultural tattoo practitioners who are rebuilding a skin-marking legacy for future generations to come. With numerous images published for the first time and an illuminating foreword by cultural historian Sean Mallon, Indigenous Tattoo Traditions opens a window onto one of the world's most vibrant yet misunderstood mediums of human expression.
Wayne Thiebaud
"A beautifully produced, authoritative volume."--Kirkus Reviews Explores Wayne Thiebaud's career as a self-described "thief" who appropriated and reinterpreted old and new European and American artworks. Although artist Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) earned acclaim for his poetic renderings of the prosaic particulars of American life, he openly admitted that "it's hard for me to think of artists who weren't influential on me, because I'm such a blatant thief." Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art features the artist's virtuosic appropriations and reinterpretations of old and new European and American artworks, spanning from Andrea Mantegna to ?douard Manet, Henri Matisse to Richard Diebenkorn, offering crucial insights into his creative process. Thiebaud's exploration of art, artists, and art history--along with the practices of copying, appropriation, and reinterpretation--allowed him not only to see through the eyes of other artists but also to commune with them through their work, expanding his own vision. This career-long engagement with the concept of appropriation illustrates his perception of art history as an encyclopedic "bureau of standards"--a rich repository and resource that offers working artists community with their predecessors and communion with their artworks. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Exhibition dates: Legion of Honor: March 22-August 17, 2025
The Art of Kelogsloops: From Sketch to Finish
Kelogloops: The Art of Hieu Nguyen is the debut art book from the popular mixed-media artist. Though Hieu is based in Melbourne, Australia, his incredible artwork has been showcased in exhibitions around the world, including Los Angeles, Berlin, San Francisco, and Sydney. Known for both digital and watercolour paintings, Hieu masterfully blends his love of surreal-art styles and Japanese anime. In this stunning art book, Hieu takes readers through his journey as an artist, from being taught a simple way to draw manga art by his older sister aged five, to reaching over a million followers on Instagram as 'Kelogsloops' and achieveing commercial success. Primarily a watercolour artist, Hieu creates delicate yet vibrant paintings that create an emotional connection with the viewer. His work is driven by the everyday feelings that come with being human, such as love, grief, and nostalgia - those things that can often onlly be communicated through art.Readers will find joy in discovering how Hieu is inspired to create his work, and the process behind each piece. This is a must-have book for any fan of Kelogsloops, or any art fan in general. The production value is incredibly high, making this a book to keep on your coffee table or bookshelf for years to come.
The DAO in Chinese Calligraphy
This book explores the profound connection between traditional Chinese calligraphy and its philosophical roots. In a world where innovation often overshadows tradition, this book serves as a crucial reminder of the value and significance of ancient practices that have shaped the art form for centuries. The author embarks on an investigative journey to rediscover the ancient techniques employed by the revered calligrapher Wang Xizhi, which have been lost for nearly 700 years. Through rigorous experimentation, she reveals that true calligraphy must adhere to these traditional methods; otherwise, it becomes mere painting. She emphasized that any departure from Wang Xizhi's methods undermines the essence of calligraphy itself. By reframing the discourse around calligraphy, the author invites readers to appreciate the depth of the traditional approach.
Rembrandt. the Complete Paintings
The Dutch Golden Age of painting spawned some of history's greatest artists and artisans, but few can boast the genius and legacy of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669). Despite never leaving his native Netherlands, Rembrandt projected his oeuvre past the boundaries of his own experience, producing some of art's most diverse and impactful works across portraiture, biblical, allegorical, landscape, and genre scenes. In all their forms, Rembrandt's paintings are built of intricacies--the totality of each subtle facial wrinkle, gaze, or figure amounting to an emotional force that stands unmatched among his contemporaries and artistic progeny alike.Each work is imbued with feeling. Biblical scenes, like Bathsheba at her Bath, become vehicles for meditations on human longing, probing depths beyond that which is canonized in scripture or depicted in other representations. His portraits, be them of wealthy patrons or tradesmen, communicate the essence of an individual through fine demarcations, their faces bathed in an ethereal light against darkened earthtones. Perhaps most striking, his series of self-portraits is a triumph of the medium; beginning in his youth and spanning until a year prior to his death, Rembrandt's self portraiture is an intimate glimpse into his lifelong process of self-reflection.This XL monograph compiles all 330 of Rembrandt's paintings in stunning reproductions. From Belshazzar's Feast to The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, we discover Rembrandt's painted oeuvre like never before.
Picturing Peace
How can photographers, curators, and editors convey narratives of peace and not just stories of war? Providing interdisciplinary and international perspectives on timely debates, Picturing Peace explores humanitarianism and visual culture, community collaboration, collective memory, and imagined futures for creating and sustaining of civil societies. How things look and are perceived are not superficial issues; when it comes to war and conflict, photography is vitally relevant not only to documenting violence, but also to rebuilding peaceful societies. The volume examines the intersecting issues of visual culture and peacebuilding, including: the genealogies of photography and conflict, decolonisation and the gaze, the significance of archival material, as well as recent peacebuilding initiatives. Exploring multiple forms of peace photography, the volume offers a range of voices from preeminent international scholars, as well as interviews with practicing photographers who have experience of working with post-conflict communities. As such, the book provides a timely investigation into the politics of representation, questioning how photographers might help foster social relationships, transform conflicts, and reconcile communities in the image-oriented cultures.
?douard Vuillard, the Nabis, and the Politics of Domesticity
This ground-breaking book is the first to address the feminine and feminist politics of Intimiste art - a modernist mode of art making developed in the 1890s by ?douard Vuillard while associated with the Nabi 'brotherhood'. Coined by contemporary critics, 'intimisme' encapsulated the shared approach of these artists to depicting intimate settings and themes. Vuillard's paintings, which are typically small, employ bold pigments and economic brushstrokes to depict female figures in tightly composed apartment interiors. Those portrayed include his mother and sister, just as wives and lovers dominate the art of other Nabis, including Maurice Denis and Pierre Bonnard. Francesca Berry comparatively analyses the gender politics of Nabi art to reveal real differences. Through skilled visual interpretation she argues that Vuillard attempted a profound engagement with the material conditions of feminine domesticity in cooperation with his first and most sustained audience: women. He did so, the author reveals, in artworks that explore a complex range of feminine experiences such as sexual initiation, stillbirth, illicit work, and unceasing housework. The personal gender politics of Intimiste practice also are foregrounded. Vuillard's studio-bedroom afforded him access to quotidian femininity. But at what risks to his sister's privacy and to his mother's subjectivity? Making an artistic project of feminine domesticity also meant entering the field of politics. The 1890s was the decade of state legislation and feminist demands with respect to work in the home and women's familial rights. Personal in motif and Symbolist in form, Berry's extensive historical research reveals these artworks also to have been social and political, sometimes even feminist, in meaning. Transcending the structural repression of domesticity in histories of modernist art, this book powerfully overturns residual myths of aesthetic introspection and social retreat that for too long have been attached to Nabi Symbolism.
