The 20th Century Art Book was hailed upon its release as an exciting celebration of the myriad forms assumed by art over the last century. Complementing the phenomenally successful Art Book, and most recently The American Art Book, it presents a new and original way of bringing art alive. Covering the truly international nature of the modern art scene, it encompasses established, iconic works of art and the classics of the future. 500 artists are showcased in alphabetical order, each represented by a full-page colour plate of a definitive work and an incisive text which sheds light on both image and creator. This book is above all easy to use: cross-references help the reader make connections between artists; there is a jargon-free glossary of artistic terms and movements; and an international directory of museums and galleries lists the works on public view. Ideal for those approaching the subject for the first time, it is a fun and unintimidating look at the ever-expanding boundaries of art.

For thousands of years, Australian Aborigines have been making art. A manifestation of the creative forces of Dreamtime, art is also a fundamental means of expressing individual and group identity. Howard Morphy surveys the great variety in Aboriginal art, showing the inter-relationships between such diverse art forms as body painting, dance, the decoration of weapons and utensils, and painting on bark and canvas.

Vibrantly illustrated and full of practical information, Acrylics Workshop is for anyone who wants to find out how to paint with acrylics or improve their skills. Using simple colour palettes and easy-to-follow methods, this book shows how to create successful paintings of a wide variety of subjects.

Starting with materials and basic techniques, Acrylics Workshop moves on to inspiring and achievable step-by-step projects that will help to train your eye and develop your painting skills. C1ear explanations of the basic principles of acrylics encourage you to tackle subjects ranging from simple studies to landscapes and portraits, while 'building the image' illustrations provide at-a-glance overviews of the projects. Galleries of contemporary artwork demonstrate how successful artists approach different topics and techniques.

Acrylics Workshop brings a fresh approach to practical art, helping you to achieve the best results.

The Aesthetic Movement swept through England in the latter part of the nineteenth century, touching every sphere of the fine and decorative arts and bringing a new freedom to all aspects of design.

In architecture, the dogmatism of Gothic gave way to the charm of Queen Anne. In interiors, heavy Victorian forms were replaced by the lighter, fresher Japanese-inspired shapes; in the graphic arts, innovative methods - coupled with a new approach to form - led to the revitalization of illustration and book design.

Personified by such colourful figures as James McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, the movement was held together by the coherence of its philosophy and its adamant faith in elegance and richness. This beautiful and witty book will prove invaluable to enthusiasts of design and architecture and to all those intrigued by the social history of the period.

A landmark appreciation of this towering figure in contemporary painting.

Alex Katz is a towering figure in contemporary painting, a key New York-based artist since the early 1960s. Katz was an independent figure during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism and Pop when he first emerged -- and remains a unique, though highly influential figure to this day. Alex Katz is best known for his distinct portraits of sophisticated, irresistible women, masterfully painted using precise, broad areas of colour. Alongside these unmistakably 'Katzian' female portraits are portraits of men, group portraits, landscapes and interiors rendered in painting, drawing, collage and metal cut-outs. All attest to the artist's attention to detail, economy of means and consummate technique. Bigger-than-life paintings such as The Black Dress (1960), Blue Umbrella (1972), Red Coat (1982) and White Visor (2003) have entered the collective conscience as the epitome of a particular, late 20th century feminine ideal: icons of fashion, yet miraculously resilient to the prevailing fashions of contemporary art. Katz has exhibited widely all over the world; a major, touring retrospective originating at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art was held in 1986. Alex Katz's work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., The Tate Gallery, London, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, among many others.

An essential and visually striking reference guide that takes a fresh approach to drawing the human body.

* More than 250 specially commissioned photographs and 100 drawings are used to reveal and celebrate the body

* Drawings and photographs interact to illustrate the relationship between the surface appearance of the human form and the complexities of its underlying structure

* Practical drawing lessons explain how to visualise and draw each part of the body

* Ten masterclasses examine world-famous paintings, to explore each artist's attitude, knowledge and use of anatomy

Anatomy For The Artist is the ideal reference work for all who want a comprehensive and contemporary perspective on drawing the human form.

There is perhaps no artist of the 20th century that is as famous and infamous as Andy Warhol; Andy Warhol 'Giant' Size takes its inspiration from the over-the-top quality of Andy Warhol's life, career, and legacy and in a mammoth format and huge extent depicts, in roughly chronological order, the major events, people, works, and moments in the life of an artist who continues to be endlessly fascinating to those inside and outside of the art world. Now available in a new format.

The sculpture and paintings of 1970–4 are the subject of this third volume of the catalogue dedicated to publishing the complete paintings, sculptures and drawings of Andy Warhol (1928–87). As authoritative and detailed as the highly praised first two volumes, here Warhol's sculptures and paintings of these four years are comprehensively catalogued and illustrated. Early in this period Warhol was concentrating on film and sculpture, as he had been since being shot in 1968, but by late 1971 or early 1972 he was returning to painting and developing his painterly, 'sloppy and fast' style; a dramatic shift from his 'hard' mechanical style of before 1968. The volume covers major sculptures, such as the Rain Machine, the series of paintings Mao and Man Ray, and commissioned portraits of important, celebrated and fashionable people of the day – many from Warhol's travels through Europe during this time. It is a time of great transition for Warhol, including developing his relationships with various media and the impact of his first purchase of a Big Shot Polaroid camera. His diaries and the photographs he took on travels and of his subjects enliven the narrative and give intriguing insights into his works of these years and his unique engagement with the culture and society of that time.

Anish Kapoor's sculptures are as mysterious as they are beautiful.  Although they employ a wide range of traditional and non-traditional materials, their real subject is often immaterial and ungraspable: a chasm, a reflection, a column of air.  Kapoor belongs to a generation of British sculptors (Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Antony Gormley) who revived sculpture by injecting it with new vitality, even playfulness, in the wake of Minimalism.  It should come as no surprise, then, that he is one of the best-loved artists working today, the recipient of numerous international awards (including the Turner Prize) and the creative force behind some of the most popular public sculptures in contemporary art, including  Marsyas in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall (2002) and Cloud Gate in Chicago's Millennium Park  (2004).

The first monograph on this eastern European artist's celebrated work.

Anri Sala's video 'Intervista' (1998) begins with the artist moving house and finding an old 16 mm film in a box. On it he can see an interview with a young woman, whom he recognizes as his mother, being interviewed for state television in their native Albania. Without the sound reel the sense of the interview is lost, so Sala enlists lip-readers to restore the missing words. When he shows the subtitled film to his mother, she reacts to the words of her younger self with disbelief - could she really have spouted the empty rhetoric the ruling party? When the film cuts to a shot of her smiling beside the party leaders, the video shows her lifting a hand to her mouth in astonishment, or perhaps recognition. Raised in Albania, Sala relocated to Paris to attend the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs, and moved to Berlin in 2003. In a relatively short time, he has developed a vision that addresses the issues of a posthistorical world with a haunting simplicity that transcends cultures and borders. While his work's technical simplicity recalls straight documentary practices, its basic concerns - light and darkness, achrome and colour, sound and silence - weave into a poetic investigation of its own medium, whether video, photography or sound installation. Sala has had solo exhibitions at museums around the world - including CCA Kitakyushu in Japan, De Appel in Amsterdam, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris - and his work is regularly featured in major international exhibitions - including the 49th and 50th Venice Biennales (2001 and 2003), the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale (2002) and the 2nd Berlin Biennale (2002). Included in the book are an interview with the artist, a survey providing an overview and analysis of the artist's entire career, a focus that discusses a single important artwork in detail, a piece of writing chosen by the artist for its personal significance and a selection of the artist's own writings.

• Beautiful reproductions of over 200 masterpieces from classical to contemporary
• An accessible text that focuses on appreciating, understanding and enjoying paintings
• Appreciation panels to illuminate understanding and interpretation of key themes and motifs
• A wealth of cross-references for easy navigation between contrasting and connected works
• Divded by theme and genre, then proceeding chronologically to follow the evolution of ideas
• Weighty enough to offer a complete course in art appreciation, compact enough to carry as a guide.

ART & TODAY is the most comprehensive survey of contemporary art of the past three decades. The book's original thematic organization gives a welcome order to the flux of contemporary art. Over four hundred of the most significant contemporary artists from around the world are represented, including emerging as well as established figures. The book's lively, straightforward, and authoritative writing makes the volume a perfect introduction to contemporary art for students in the field as well as anyone interested in the subject. This book is the follow-up to Phaidon's extremely successful ART TODAY.

Winner of the Illustrated Book of the Year award in 1994, The Art Book has been an outstanding success and has become a well-known landmark in the art book world. Now published in over 20 different languages and in mini, midi, and hardback formats, it has received rave reviews from numerous newspapers and magazines and has made many appearances on the bestseller lists. Complemented by The 20th Century Art Book and The American Art Book, its unique approach brings art alive. An A-Z guide to 500 great painters and sculptors from medieval to modern times, it debunks art-historical classifications by throwing together brilliant examples of all periods, schools, visions and techniques. Each artist is represented by a full-page colour plate of a definitive work, accompanied by explanatory and illuminating information on the image and its creator. Glossaries of artistic movements and technical terms are included, making this a valuable work of reference as well as a feast for the eyes. By breaking with traditional classifications, The Art Book represents a fresh and original approach to art: an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich and multi-faceted culture.

The first book to define Art Deco painting as a genre.

The Art Deco style was all pervasive during the 1920s and 1930s affecting the decorative arts, fine arts and fashion. This text specifically examines Art Deco painting and defines it as a genre. The author analyzes the characteristics of the style, period and history of the movement, explaining its relationship to Classicism, the Symbolists, the Precisionists, photography and Cubism. It discusses the frequent use of classical imagery, the importance of society portraiture, the portrayal of the 'demi-monde' and the lure of decorative exoticism. French, American, Russian, British and Italian Art Deco painters, who are all represented here, were attracted as much to the skyscraper and the automobile as they were to the classical nude. The result was a remarkable mix of traditional and modern: the sleek, seductive portraits by the Polish emigre Tamara de Lempicka, the fantastical classical allegories of Jean Dupas, the elegant high-style compositions of Australia by Charles Meere and the evocative 'real-life' scenes of Glyn Philpot.

Approaches to the history of art are probably more varied and more debated than in any other branch of history, and a study of different historical approaches has become an increasingly important component of many student courses. This critical anthology brings together the work of 27 influential art historians and writers from the Renaissance to the present day; key texts have been chosen in which the authors reflect on the nature of their subject and on their own methods of inquiry. Included are texts by Vasari, Winckelmann, Burckhardt, Wölfflin, Panofsky, Gombrich and Pollock, among others. The introduction is a lucid and readable summary of art-historical methods, and each of the texts is accompanied by a commentary that places it in context and discusses the issues it raises. A glossary of terms and a select bibliography make this book an invaluable resource in the study of art history.

The ultimate visual guide to paintings and sculpture from around the world.

Bring a gallery of more than 2,500 of the world's most influential paintings and sculptures ever created into your home and learn everything you need to know about art history.

Peruse over 8,000 stunning works from 700 artists and explore the major milestones of art history from cave paintings to modern masterpieces. Learn how to 'read' composition, subject matter, technique and style as key paintings are examined in intricate detail to help you understand the artist's intentions, style and method. Picture-packed pages explore common themes such as landscapes, nudes and animals.

Created in collaboration with the biggest art library in the world, Bridgeman, this is a must-have for every family bookshelf.

A guide to living a creative life from 9 to 5 and beyond.

Based on the hit handmade 'zine, The Artist in the Office is an inspirational, interactive book for any artist living in the real world. It encourages small acts of creativity and a simple shift of perspective to help readers bring their artistic selves into the workplace and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

Readers are prompted to undertake a wide range of liberating activities, from the mundane to the sublime, that won't put their 9-to- 5 job at risk, including:

- Take lunchtime adventures to rouse your spirit: a bookstore, a flower shop, or a park

- Pick one ordinary object each day and take pictures every time you see it: coffee mugs, shoes, office plants

- Get up an hour early or stay up an hour later and devote the time to your creative work. Schedule it in like any other mandatory appointment or meeting

- Collect doodles from Post-Its or notebooks and reassemble them in a sketchbook

This book is a rare and fascinating picture of contemporary New Zealand artists in their studios. It provides an array of fresh insights into the practical aspects of artists embarking on their creative processes.

The 24 painters and sculptors have been chosen by well-known writer and art commentator Richard Wolfe and photographer Stephen Robinson. The line-up includes established names like Stanley Palmer, Paul Dibble, Jacqueline Fahey and Dick Frizzell as well as up-and-coming artists such as Tracey Tawhaio, Heather Straka and Andrew McLeod. Collectively, they represent a rich diversity of styles and a broad geographic spread through the country.

Artists @ Work makes a unique contribution to our understanding and appreciation of our artists and their work, to be treasured by every New Zealand art lover.

A complete, practical guide to the visual arts, fully restyled and revised for a new generation of artists.

Complete practical reference
Packed with essential information, and featuring over 1000 full-colour illustrations, this is the definitive guide to the tools, materials and techniques of the artist's craft.

Latest technical innovations
Ray Smith presents an invaluable pictorial library of the basic skills, as well as providing instruction and inspiration of using more challenging creative techniques. Full-colour step-by-step photographic sequences demonstrate the best way to build up simple or more complex pieces of work, and there are helpful tip boxes throughout. This revised edition sheds new light on advances in many areas of art practice, with expanded sections on the applied arts and additional material on digital imaging, printmaking and public art.

For enthusiastic beginners and accomplished artists alike, The Artist's Handbook is an indispensable source of information and inspiration.

What determines 'traditional' Aboriginal art in an era when modern media such as aluminium, acrylic paint and even cast-off fishing nets have become the media of choice for contemporary artists? What is the relationship between artworks that share similar forms, but whose ceremonial functions of the past wither beneath the imperatives of cultural and socio-economic survival in the twenty-first century? 

Before time today: Reinventing tradition in Aurukun Aboriginal art considers these issues within the context of unique, stunning art from the remote north Queensland Aboriginal community of Aurukun.

This book explains how Aurukun art production absorbed the colonial impact of mission and government cultural intervention throughout the twentieth century, shifting through demands for cultural display to outsiders and arts and crafts initiatives, and then providing the powerful visual symbols for the political struggles of Aurukun's Wik people to regain land ownership and social justice.

Extensive high-quality reproductions of Aurukun's charismatic carvings, weavings and paintings illustrate the inspiring connections between art and life, and demonstrate how a reinvention of artistic tradition fuels creativity and innovation in keeping culture strong and vibrant; relevant and resistant.

The complexity of Aurukun art is approached through a breadth of scholarship in anthropology, art history and curatorship, enriched by the wisdom and insights of Aurukun artists themselves. Contributors include Peter Sutton, David Martin and John von Sturmer, each of whom has worked closely with the Aurukun community for decades, and shares a profound understanding about how art 'matters' in the fight for cultural survival. All of the art historian contributors are also experienced curators, combining analysis of artworks with perspectives gained from working with artists on exhibitions and public events.

Before time today is about the real world of contemporary Aboriginal art as it happens in Aurukun. It is compelling reading for those who want to look beyond the beautiful surfaces of Aboriginal art into the visual expression of people who have endured dramatic change, and who now embrace it in their lives and in their art.

A subtle and sensitive study of this pioneer of abstract art.

Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. A pioneer of abstract art in Britain, he first came to prominence with his famous 'white reliefs', but also maintained a lifelong attachment to landscape and still-life forms and, in a career of over 60 years, produced a remarkable range of carved reliefs, paintings, drawings and prints.

Norbert Lynton's subtle and sensitive study, the first full-length, comprehensive monograph on the artist's life and work, was originally published in 1993 in a large edition with many supplementary illustrations. In this second, paperback edition it is reissued in a shorter format. With the text unchanged and with over 190 illustrations, the new edition makes this standard work available at an incredibly competitive price to a new and much wider audience.

Across the globe there are scores of beautiful and unusual works of art that are largely unseen or fail to receive the critical acclaim they deserve. The Best Art You've Never Seen is your essential companion to this hidden world of artistic treasures.

Travelling from Peru to Papua New Guinea, The Best Art You've Never Seen restores to view 100 wonderful treasures - uncovering neglected artistic wonders from off-beat corners of the world to store rooms in the world's great museums. Written by art expert and former museum director Julian Spalding, The Best Art You've Never Seen takes you into a world of beautiful and arresting artefacts and reveals their amazing stories.

It unveils a surprising and unfamiliar alternative canon of works to offer a fresh and controversial take on the world of art.

Bonnard is acknowledged as a master of modern art, following in the tradition of the Impressionists. He is best known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors but he was also a highly accomplished draughtsman who produced a wealth of lithographs and drawings. This volume illustrates the full range of his output, from his early works inspired by Japanese prints, to the richly coloured works of his later years. This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), one of the major artists of the Northern Renaissance, had a seemingly inexhaustible imagination. Known as the creator of disturbing demons and spectacular hellscapes, he also painted the Garden of Earthly Delights, where gleeful naked youths feast on giant strawberries. Little is known of Bosch's life and his art has remained enigmatic, variously interpreted as the hallucinations

of a madman or the secret language of a heretical sect. The Surrealists claimed Bosch as a predecessor, seeing in his work the imagery of dream, fantasy and the subconscious. Laurinda Dixon argues, however, that to understand and appreciate Bosch's art we must return to the era in which he lived.

Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), one of the major artists of the Northern Renaissance, had a seemingly inexhaustible imagination. Known as the creator of disturbing demons and spectacular hellscapes, he also painted the Garden of Earthly Delights, where gleeful naked youths feast on giant strawberries. Little is known of Bosch's life and his art has remained enigmatic, variously interpreted as the hallucinations

of a madman or the secret language of a heretical sect. The Surrealists claimed Bosch as a predecessor, seeing in his work the imagery of dream, fantasy and the subconscious. Laurinda Dixon argues, however, that to understand and appreciate Bosch's art we must return to the era in which he lived.

An inspirational guide to drawing plants.

An intimate understanding of botany will help any artist create vibrant and realistic art. Sarah Simblet's masterclass provides you with an awareness and appreciation of plants and flowers and shows how to apply that knowledge to your art.

Covering every type of plant, from the tiniest mosses and lichens to sumptuous flowers and trees, Sarah shows how to evoke their beauty on your canvas or page. Drawing on the rich history of botanic art and combined with Sarah's practical drawing classes, over 350 beautiful illustrations and vivid photographs, provide an in-depth look at roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits and explain how to create life-like drawings.

For anyone wishing to master the art of drawing plants or for all those passionate about plants and how they are portrayed in art.

A comprehensive survey of the distinctly British version of Impressionism.

'Beauty lies in the light, as much in the atmosphere which surrounds things as in their actual form and fashion.' These words appear in Stanhope Forbes's 'Treatment of Modern Life in Art', and they stand as the credo of an extraordinarily accomplished generation of painters - including Forbes, Lavery, Sargent and Sickert - the British Impressionists. This beautiful and comprehensive book surveys the exciting developments, debates and personalities among French, British and American painters of the period, and the ferment and challenge of their ideas and achievements to which we are grateful heirs. Artists such as Steer, Clausen, O'Conor and Laura Knight depicted an enormous number of urban and rural scenes, refining their ideas into an Impressionist style that is distinctly British.

Pieter Bruegel (c.1525-69) was perhaps the greatest sixteenth-century Flemish painter and he is certainly the most popular today. Surprisingly, fewer than fifty of his works have survived, though his episodes from peasant life, landscapes and religious paintings are familiar to all. To each of these themes Bruegel brought remarkable gifts of observation, an unfailing sense of line and a dazzling use of colour. The gaity and heartiness of his scenes of contemporary life are, however, tinged with a wry pessimism; he was a shrewd judge of human nature and his use of Flemish proverbs allowed him to instruct and entertain at the same time. His message is as fresh today as it was four hundred years ago; and his scenes of destruction and terror no less than his paintings of unbridled enjoyment will doubtless be relevant for many generations to come.
 
The introductory essay by Keith Roberts, has been revised and enlarged with 48 full-page colour plates, notes and black-and-white comparative illustrations by Christopher Brown, who is Chief Curator of the National Gallery, London.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was one of the most innovative painters of his time, and one of the most momentous artists of any era. Rescued from neglect, he has become a cultural icon in the late twentieth century, not only for his art but also because of his violent and tragic life.

Catherine Puglisi's highly praised monograph, now available for the first time in paperback to extend its accessibility to a new audience, supersedes all previous studies of the artist by far. Making full use of the latest research and a series of dramatic recent discoveries, she has produced a concise, clear-headed and comprehensive work of scholarship that also provides a moving biography of the artist and an incisive deconstruction of the genius with which he absorbed and transformed the artistic tradition of his time. Altogether, Puglisi's work - a profound achievement in its own right - reveals a poignant aspect to Caravaggio's life and work, which offers a deeper insight into his function as an artist than has ever been made possible before.

The entirety of Caravaggio's works are discussed with expertise and illustrated in colour, while the book also contains an appendix of documents dating back to the sixteenth century, full notes and a wide bibliography, a checklist of works and full indexes. This authoritative and beautifully produced monograph is the standard work on Caravaggio: it is now accessible to the broadest audience yet in a no less sophisticated but all the more user-friendly presentation.

A lively account of the highly influential artist's life and work.

An introduction to the work of Marc Chagall.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was one of the giants of twentieth-century art, who with a powerful imagination and a wonderful sense of colour created a unique personal world of fantasy and memory. He was born into a poor Jewish family in Vitebsk, Russia, a place which remained a constant source of inspiration. Establishing his reputation in Paris before the First World War, he spent the years 1914-22 in Russia, but disillusioned by the Revolution, he returned and made
France his home. He was influenced by the Cubists and in turn influenced the Surrealists, but his vision and his style were always his own - a blend of imagination, symbolism, fantasy and colour based on his memories. In addition to painting, he became a celebrated printmaker and perhaps the greatest modern master of stained glass.

In a highly readable introduction and in commentaries on the 48 colour plates, Gill Polonsky provides a vivid portrait of this exuberant and versatile genius, a moralist, fantasist, mythmaker and religious artist whose work is a kind of visual poetry, expressing in form and colour his intensely personal vision.

Includes 89 illustrations, 48 in colour.

An introduction to the work of Jean Baptiste Chardin.

Jean Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) was arguably the most talented French painter of the eighteenth century, best known for his original still lifes. Composed of simple, everyday objects, these works glow with warmth and magic, from the dull iron of the kitchen pans, to the glaze of the green earthenware jug or the shining copper of the cauldron. There is no superfluous detail or search for decorative effect; the beauty of his paintings lies in their minimalism. His, contemporary, the philosopher Diderot, looking at 'The Oliver Jar' exclaimed 'All you have to do is take these biscuits and eat them . . . pick up the glass of wine and drink it . . . O Chardin! It's not red, white or black pigment that you crush on your palette; it's the very substance of the objects.'

Following the success of his early lifes, and inspired by Dutch seventeenth-century artists, Chardin went on to paint some exquisite genre scenes and portraits, remarkable for their realism and honesty as well as for their skilful technique. His works had a tremendous influence on subsequent artists, inspiring painters as diverse as Manet and Cezanne.

Includes 87 illustrations, 48 in colour.

Everything you need to know to develop your painting and drawing skills in easy steps.

Whether you are interested in learning to draw, or working with watercolours, acrylics or oils this step-by-step guide is for you.

Starting with materials and techniques, warm-up exercises encourage you to build your drawing and painting expertise and confidence. Easy-to-follow step-by-step projects designed to train your eye and develop your skills show you what to do, and demonstrate key techniques.

Clear explanations of the principles of drawing and painting will encourage you to tackle different subjects from simple landscapes to portraits, while 'building the image' illustrations provide at-a-glance overviews of projects.

Galleries of contemporary artwork demonstrate how successful artists approach different topics from still lifes, to panoramas and figures, with tips helping you to develop your personal style.

A fresh approach to practical art helping you achieve the best results, whatever your level.

Conceptual art marks a major turning point in late twentieth-century art. An art of ideas - which can be written, published, performed, fabricated, or which can simply remain inside your head - it is also an art of questions. Since its emergence in the mid 1960s, it has challenged our precepts about not only art but society, politics and the media. An international movement, Conceptual art encompasses not only North America and Western Europe but also South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Japan. Its legacy is global, ranging from small local participatory projects to large-scale installations at major museums and biennales. This comprehensive volume combines in one book an authoritative Survey essay by philosopher and art historian Peter Osborne, tracing Conceptual art's origins in Europe, Japan and the USA, its development throughout the 1960s and 1970s and its legacy in contemporary art; a Works section documenting the key works, divided usefully into six distinctive types of Conceptual art; and a Documents section including texts by philosophers and writers who crucially influenced the movement, alongside key original texts by artists, critics and art historians.

This new monograph explores the career of John Constable (1776-1837), one of the most important nineteenth-century British artists and the quintessential English landscapist. The painter who pioneered outdoor painting and elevated landscape subjects to masterpieces such as The Hay Wain, Flatford Mill and Dedham Lock – seeing his art as a natural philosophy and each work as a searching experiment – is presented afresh in this approachable yet inquiring new appraisal.

In his thorough survey, Jonathan Clarkson offers the reader comprehensive assessment of Constable's oeuvre: from his earliest line drawings to the last masterpieces, including pencil drawings, quick outdoor oil sketches, painstakingly worked studio canvases, and less well-known portraits. Combining biographical detail with a rich historical and cultural context, Clarkson discusses Constable's theories and technique in depth, revealing the revolutionary influence Constable had on painting, from his own time to the present day.

An introduction to the work of John Constable.

No artist has rivalled John Constable (1776-1837) in his powers to express the beauties of the British countryside, especially the scenery of his native East Anglia. He sought above all to make 'pure and unaffected representations of the scenes', and to this end he made detailed studies of the minutest phenomena of nature. He wrote: 'My limited and abstracted art is to be found under every hedge, and in every lane . . .'. But this feeling for such qualities had to be reconciled with the traditional - and what were for him the essential - demands of painting pictures for public exhibition. In this book many of his most famous pictures are reproduced, showing how Constable adjusted the fresh, spontaneous handling of paint in his sketches to more formal, academic requirements.

Each full-page colour plate is accompanied by an explanatory text and over fifty black-and-white illustrations offer comparisons with the paintings.

Includes 106 illustrations, 54 in colour.

The latest book in the Cream series brings together 100 of the most exciting contemporary artists emerging today, chosen by 10 internationally renowned curators. Creamier is printed as an unbound, large format broadsheet and comes packaged in a luxurious folded portfolio bound with a belly band.

 The latest book in the Cream series brings together 100 of the most exciting contemporary artists emerging today, chosen by 10 internationally renowned curators. Creamier is printed as an unbound, large format broadsheet and comes packaged in a luxurious folded portfolio bound with a belly band.

An up-to-date, engaging survey of the most important revolution in early twentieth-century art.

Cubism remains perhaps the single most important development in the history of twentieth-century art. It was the creation of just two artists - Georges Braque, a Frenchman, and Pablo Picasso, a Spaniard - between the years 1907 and 1914. Working alongside each other in Paris, then the artistic capital of the world, they invented a way of making pictures and sculptures that broke with conventions established 500 years earlier in the Renaissance.

Their new art drew on the ruptures that had taken place in the previous decade (especially the work of Paul Cézanne) and also on their new ways of seeing non-Western art. Cubism was an idea of such power and flexibility that it spread across Europe and America with astonishing speed. Its enthusiasts include many great names in modern art such as Juan Gris, Fernand Léger and Marcel Duchamp. Cubism penetrated artistic activity far beyond painting and sculpture; it reinvigorated architecture, graphic design, music and poetry, and transformed the possibilities of photography and film. This exciting book covers the full range of its influence.

Dada developed in distinct periods and locations, providing the structure of the book. From Europe and New York during the First World War it spread to Eastern Europe and Japan in the 1920s. Its re-emergence as Neo-Dada in the 1950s and influence on Fluxus in the 1960s was linked to emigres such as Marcel Duchamp and Hans Richter.

International Dada expert Rudolf Kuenzli surveys Dada in its historical context and examines its significant impact and resonance in art and culture today. Linking visual art, performance and literature, this is a fresh treatement of Dada as the Dadaists saw it. A reassessment of one of the twentieth century's most revolutionary movements in the arts, Kuenzli's clear style is accessible to the scholar and the general reader.

Each image is accompanied by an extended caption. The book is organized chronologically and geographically around major explosions of Dada activity. From its inception in Zurich during the First World War, we follow Dada to New York, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, Paris, Central and Eastern Europe, and Japan, finally looking at Neo-Dada. It is a roll-call of the avant-garde.

This thought-provoking book re-evaluates the work of one of the most notorious, provocative and visually influential artists of the twentieth century. Robert Radford traces Salvador Dali's career from the crucial early years in Spain, to membership of the Surrealist group in 1930s Paris, and then on to New York and Hollywood, where his purposefully extravagant behaviour made him a media star. The influential figures in his life - Federico Garcia Lorca, Luis Buñuel and his wife Gala - are introduced as the book explores Dali's diverse work as painter, writer, film-maker, illustrator, jewellery designer, myth-maker and performance artist.

An introduction to the work of Salvador Dalí.

Salvador Dali (1904 - 89) was one of the most controversial and paradoxical artists of the twentieth century. A painter of considerable virtuosity, he used a traditional illusionistic style to create disturbing images filled with references to violence, death, cannibalism and bizarre sexual practices, from the extraordinary limp watches in 'The Persistence of Memory' to the gruesome monster in 'Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War' and the fetishistic lobster in the famous 'Lobster Telephone'. The Surrealists regarded Dali's paintings as revealing the normally hidden world of the unconscious.

Includes 86 illustrations, 48 in colour.

A study of Jacques-Louis David, chronicler of the French Revolution.

A comprehensive guide to the history and development of style and design from 1700 to the present day, from No.1 antiques and collectables expert Judith Miller.

From priceless Oriental porcelain and Huguenot silver to exquisite Art Deco glass and minimalist contemporary chairs, explore the entire spectrum of decorative pieces including furniture, ceramics, silverware, glass, textiles, sculpture, clocks, and posters through the centuries.

Discover how to identify the key features and motifs, materials and techniques that influenced design and their significance. Uncover the stories behind the key designers and craftsmen, and the movements they represent. Over 3,000 beautiful items reveal the style and beauty of furnishings and objects used to decorate interiors through the centuries.

An introduction to the work of Albrecht Dürer.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was one of the greatest artists of the Northern Renaissance, remarkable for the range and versatility of his work. His woodcuts and engravings made him famous throughout Europe and he is still regarded as one of the most brilliant printmakers of all time. Durer was equally successful at religious and secular subjects, painting magnificent altarpieces and powerful portraits. He also produced an impressive range of drawings and watercolours in a variety of media.

The son of an Hungarian goldsmith, Durer grew up in Nuremberg, a town half-way between the Netherlands and Italy, and he found inspiration in the work of the painters of both these major artistic centres of his time. But rather than simply imitating what others were doing, Durer was very much an innovator; he is the first artist who is known to have produced a self-portrait and to have done a landscape painting of a specific scene. This book contains some of his best-loved works, including 'A Young Hare' and 'Praying Hands'.

Includes 88 illustrations, 48 in colour.

An introduction to the great masters of Dutch painting.

The seventeenth century was the Golden Age of Dutch painting, during which political independence and increasing prosperity created new patrons of the arts among merchants and statesmen. Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer, and a host of lesser-known talents, produced a dazzling variety of work, from intimate portraits to virtuoso still lifes, dramatic seascapes to coolly observed domestic interiors. This survey of the period presents a careful selection of paintings that marvellously evoke the spirit of a great age of creativity.

Christopher Brown is Chief Curator at the National Gallery, London, where he has curated the collection of Dutch and Flemish art since 1971. This revised and expanded edition of his text is now published in an attractive new format.

Includes 83 illustrations, 48 in colour.

A beautiful presentation of the stylish artist's celebrated drawings and paintings.

An introduction to the work of Fra Angelico.

Fra Angelico (c.1400-55) is one of the most popular artists of the early Italian Renaissance. In his own lifetime churches and cathedrals competed for his work, and the style he evolved has come to be regarded as the natural language of religious painting. For more than a century the popular image of an angel has been that of an angel by Fra Angelico.

Perhaps his best known work is the series of fresco decorations in the convent of San Marco in Florence, where Angelico was a friar. These paintings tell the story of the life of Christ as vividly and movingly today as they must have done over five hundred years ago. The powerful simplicity of the forms, the treatment of light and the subtlety of colour testify both to Fra Angelico's personal religious conviction and to his awareness of recent developments in Florentine art.

This comprehensive survey of Angelico's work includes many panels from San Marco, and from his other important commission in the Vatican, and a superb selection of altarpieces and panels spanning his whole working life.

Christopher Lloyd's authoritative essay on Angelico was first published in 1979, with the forty-eight full-page colour plates. For this revised edition, David White has added a full and clear commentary on each picture, and numerous black-and-white illustrations to compare with the paintings.

Includes 83 illustrations, 48 in colour.

Francis Bacon, one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, speaks openly to his close friend Archimbaud about his life and art. The interviews took place in Bacon's studio just before his death in 1992. Francis Bacon was a self-taught painter and yet went on to become one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, his startling studies of distorted figures in airless, enclosed spaces seeming to capture the alienation and despair of modern man. In this book he speaks frankly to his close friend Michel Archimbaud about the influences which have shaped his art. Bacon punctuates his answers with disparaging remarks about a whole host of artists including amongst others Rubens, Blake, Monet, Cezanne, Picasso, Shakespeare, Wagner and Debussy. Archimbaud's searching questions shed a new light on Bacon's work. These interviews took place in Bacon's studio between October 1991 and April 1992. They were to continue in Paris following Bacon's trip to Madrid but he died in Madrid on 28 April 1992. As such they can be seen as his last vision.

An introduction to the work of Thomas Gainsborough.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) was one of the most brilliant and original portrait painters of the eighteenth century, surpassing his great rival Reynolds with his ability to capture a likeness and in his superb handling of paint. He was also a talented and sensitive landscape painter and has been hailed as the father of the British landscape school, paving the way for artists such as Constable and Turner. This book contains many of Gainsborough's most famous paintings, including 'Mr and Mrs Andrews' and 'The Blue Boy', and also many lesser-known and revealing works.

Includes 90 illustrations, 48 in colour.

Inside this book are beautiful paintings, ready for you to mix up. Turn the flaps to create a whole new work of art – with squiggles, spots, squares and shapes of all kinds!

Study the lines, shapes and colours of the patterns in this book. They may look the same . . . but they're not! Look closely – how many differences can you spot?

An introduction to the work of Gauguin.

Paul Gaugin (1848-1903) was one of the most formidable artists of the late nineteenth century, and one whose work was to have a profound influence on the development of art in the twentieth. He began as an Impressionist, but went on to develop a more two-dimensional, richly-coloured style in his constant search for a 'lost paradise' untouched by nineteenth-century civilisation. Gaugin's romantic and tragic life story is mirrored in the works in this outstanding anthology. Included are 48 full-page colour plates, not only of his best-know beautiful, atmospheric paintings of Tahiti in which Gaugin attempted to reconstruct the perfect life which he had failed to find in reality, but also of many powerful works which reflect the artist's contact with other early modern masters - Degas, Van Gough, Cezanne.

Lesley Stevensen has written an informative, clear commentary to accompany each colour plate.

Includes 77 illustrations, 48 in colour.

A study of the uniquely versatile artist and brilliant social commentator.

This big and beautiful book presents a comprehensive survey of the work of one of Japan's greatest and most influential artists, together with a collection of essays that focus on a key aspects of the master's career. The book opens with an introductory essay by Gian Carlo Calza presenting an overview of the changing world into which Hokusai was born and through which he lived. This is followed by a series of essays, composed by distinguished Western and Japanese scholars, that present new research on a range of crucial areas of interest in Hokusai studies.

These form a context for the core of the book, which embodies a retrospective of Hokusai's entire career, divided into seven chapters. Each chapter provides a succinct account of a phase in Hokusai's life, followed by a series of the finest and most representative works of that period. Great care has been taken throughout to choose for reproduction the best-preserved original prints that reveal Hokusai's mastery of line and colour to full advantage.

This magnificent pictorial survey of Hokusai's prints, paintings and drawings is the first publication in English to make such a rich selection widely available, and to demonstrate the extraordinary range and quality of Hokusai's achievement. The final component of the book is a detailed scholarly commentary on each illustration that provides not only the necessary technical information but also a revealing analysis of style, color, composition and motif.

An introduction to the work of Hans Holbein.

Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1497-1543) is renowned for his incisive portraits of Northern Europe's courtiers, thinkers and statesmen, but his output was far more various, and included book illustration, large religious paintings and designs for jewellery and court fashions. This fine record of his career examines these varied aspects of his genius and beautifully illustrates the ways in which his miraculous technical accomplishment and attention to surface detail were married to acute observation of and empathy with his human subjects.

Dr Helen Langdon, formerly a lecturer at the National Gallery, London, has provided this introduction to Holbein, and art historian James Malpas has selected additional illustrations and written detailed commentaries on each colour plate.

Includes 79 illustrations, 48 in colour

Justin Paton's Montana Award-winning and much-loved journey through the world of art, now in a superb new format. A true treasure for art-lovers.

A comprehensive study of one of the most popular art movements.

Celebrations of city streets, tranquil vistas of the countryside and seashore, enchanting images of the leisured classes in domestic interiors or at fashionable Parisian cafés - the work of the Impressionists gives pleasure to art lovers everywhere. But while Impressionism today may appear natural and effortless, contemporaries were shocked by the loose handling of paint and the practice of painting out-of-doors. In defiance of the conservative official Salon, the Impressionists, led by Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas, sought to capture the immediacy of experience.

This fascinating, comprehensive study brings together the most recent research on Impressionism. James Rubin makes accessible its philosophical, political and social context. As well as the acknowledged masters, our attention is drawn to lesser known but important Impressionists such as Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Gustave Caillebotte.

An introduction to the masters of the Impressionist movement.

The Impressionists developed one of the most innovative movements in the history of Western art. Their revolutionary ideas about light and colour, expression, realism, the aim of painting and the role of the artist, all laid the foundations of modern art. Although ridiculed at first by the art establishment in Europe, Impressionism became one of the most celebrated and popular of art styles, and artists such as Monet, Manet, Pissarro and Renoir have achieved enduring acclaim.

In this book, Mark Powell-Jones, an art historian with a special interest in Impressionism, defines and charts the development of the movement. Critic Philip Cooper has chosen illustrations to show the diversity of and connections between Impressionist paintings, and has written a detailed commentary on each colour plate.

Includes 83 illustrations, 50 in colour.

An exploration of the Impressionists' shared passion for painting gardens.

This book brings together a selection of Impressionist paintings of gardens and flowers, a favourite and richly developed subject of artists including Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley. The Impressionists, with their approach to rendering outdoor effects and fleeting atmospheric conditions, captured the sunlit colour, mood and almost the smell of flower gardens. In doing so, they registered a new public sensibility: the love, not just of fresh air and greenery, but also of gloriously colourful settings on a domestic scale. For indeed, some of the best-loved works are of their own and their friends' gardens, such as Monet's garden at Giverny. This book is a celebration of both art and nature.

Revised and expanded final edition of the authoritative monograph on this modern master.

R B Kitaj (b.1932) is recognized universally as a modern master. His powerful, controversial and highly personal paintings, pastels and drawings reflect his unfashionable commitment to the human figure as a subject, and his complex involvement with the art of the past, especially their political and social issues, and his own Jewish identity.

An introduction to the work of Paul Klee.

Few artists of this century have exercised so wide an influence as Paul Klee (1879-1940). He was one of the most inventive and prolific of the modern masters, working in a dozen different styles, each of which he made uniquely his own, so that a work from his brush is unmistakable in any style. The forty-eight full-page colour plates in this book illustrate the unparalleled way in which he combined unrivalled imaginative gifts with supreme technical and formal proficiency, from the playfulness of such early pictures as 'Red and White Domes' to the more threatening, bitter satire of the later work.

Acompanying the plates are extensive notes and an authoritative introduction, which discusses Klee's life and the development of his thought and achievement.

Includes 80 illustrations, 51 in colour.

An introduction to the work of Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) was one of the most brilliant artists of the Austrian avant-garde. Admired for his sensual images of women and for his powerful and original vision, he produced some of the most haunting and evocative images of all time, including 'The Kiss', 'Love' and 'The Three Ages of Woman', all of which are included in this perfect introduction to the artist's work.

A founder of the Vienna Secession, the band of artists who resigned from the established art bodies to form their own group, Klimt became the principal painter of the Art Nouveau movement, painting glittering portraits of fashionable Viennese society as well as startling and erotic allegories.

Includes 83 illustrations, 48 in colour.

A classic monograph, providing a complete account of the Britsh painter's career.

L.S. Lowry's 'matchstick men' have become one of the most readily recognised images in 20th-century British art. His vivid and faithful portrayal of the industrial north has led to his adoption as 'the people's artist', though art historians and critics have sought for years to analyse his significance and appeal. Over 10,000 works by Lowry are known, ranging from finished oil paintings to hastily drawn sketches. The industrial scene was his most frequent subject but he also painted seascapes and portraits. He was a great humorist and had intense insight into human nature, characterising it without sentiment. His death in 1976 was marked by unprecedented homage by the ordinary people. This study of Lowry's life and work provides a full account of his career. Also included are excerpts from a rare interview given to Edwin Mullins and a discussion by Marina Vaizey of his place in art history.

American artist Elizabeth Peyton has been credited with breathing new life into the ancient art of portraiture. Her highly stylized, idealized oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors are driven by the emotional, adoring eye of an unrequited lover. Willowy, melancholy young men and women contemporary pop stars, royalty, artists, and friends are the magnetic subjects of her devotion. Caught as if in a state of ambiguous absorption and frozen at the height of their youth, they embody a new kind of portraiture that confirms and updates the immortalizing aura of the traditional genre.

Peyton's melding of influences and obsessions ranges widely: from fandom and fashion illustration to academic anatomical studies; from David Hockney and Andy Warhol to a range of Mannerist and Old Master classics; from innocence to the world of bohemia, equally crediting photography and life drawing as its driving forces. Her enamored yet refreshingly informal light wash technique underscores her uniquely delicate, informed hybrid of high and low culture, a statement executed with infectious, seemingly effortless fluidity.

Published in conjunction with the artist's major solo exhibition at the New Museum in New York, which will travel to the Whitechapel in London, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht.

One of the century's most distinguished artists, Louise Bourgeois is an utterly unique figure. Born in Paris in 1911, Bourgeois spent most of her career receiving little recognition from the art community. She has worked closely to many of the century's key artistic moments, from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism to feminist art, and yet she remains distinct from all of them. An extraordinarily influential sculptor, she has worked, often experimentally, with materials varying from alabaster, plaster, latex, bronze and marble. Bourgeois is equally admired for her intimate drawings, often combining fragments of text, and her highly personal writings, which often address her long and complex life story. With the backdrop of a conflicted and sexually complicated family upbringing, her struggles as an artist in a world reserved for men, as well as her experiences as a mother, the subject of her work is as broad as the materials in which she expresses them. As a figure of outstanding significance in contemporary art, her stature has been recognized by such awards as the American National Medal of the Arts (1991), the French Grand Prix National de Sculpture (1991) and the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion Prize (1999), among others.

Beginning with 'Gilles de Binche' (Antwerp, 2005) and concluding with 'Against the Day' (Brussels, Moscow and Malmö, 2009-10), acclaimed painter Luc Tuymans produced a landmark suite of seven thematically linked bodies of work. Their meta-narrative, which traces the philosophical and psychic roots of contemporary civilization, weaves together a range of photographic source images, from St Peter's to Disneyland to Big Brother, that together tell the banal and terrifying story of our times.

Luc Tuymans: Is It Safe? features this source imagery alongside more than 100 of the artist's newest paintings, many never before published. Accompanying each body of work is an introductory text written by the artist, while the essay 'Tuymans, Loyola, Leibniz', specially commissioned by Mexican artist Pablo Sigg, provides historical and philosophical context. 'Proper', an essay by Belgian art historian Gerrit Vermeiren, looks at one body of work in detail, tracing the themes and sources of each painting and capturing the cultural atmosphere of the moment in which they were produced. And an extensive interview between Tuymans and his assistant Tommy Simoens offers additional insight into the artist's thinking and motivations.

Celebrated as one of the world's most gifted and visionary painters, Tuymans has been creating iconic works of contemporary painting for nearly three decades. With their enigmatic compositions and modulated colours, these works are moving and unmistakable, and their power continues to win new converts to Tuymans's chilling vision of history painting.

The paintings of the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte (1898–1967) have exerted an extraordinary fascination, particularly since the enormous increase in awareness and popularity of his work during the 1960s. Magritte shows us a world of silence and isolation in which familiar objects are altered or juxtaposed in 'impossible' combinations in order to create a sense of disorientation and the absurd. Many of his most memorable paintings date from his three prolific years 1927–30, when he lived near Paris and was in close touch with the writer André Breton and other French Surrealists.

In his pre-war painting, stylistic concerns were of secondary importance to Magritte, whose main interest was in ideas or propositions about the world; for example, many of his paintings explore the relation between objects and words or between the image of an object and the object itself. He deliberately cultivated a cold, unemotive, 'style-less' style. This quality renders the images of violence and macabre sexuality in some of his works all the more disturbing. His own 'impressionist' and vache (ugly, crude) pictures of the 1940s have been rediscovered in the last few years by a younger generation of painters and critics keenly responsive to the later work of other masters of parody and allusion such as Picabia and de Chirico.

Richard Calvocoressi's highly successful introduction to Magritte was first published in 1979 and revised and enlarged by the addition of notes to the colour plates and many black-and-white illustrations.

 

An introduction to the work of Manet.

Edouard Manet (1832-83) was one of the greatest, as well as one of the most interesting. of 19th century French painters. Acute observation, an extraordinary skillful handling of paint and a feeling for exquisite harmonies of colour make his work both vivid and enchanting. It is also of great significance in the history of European painting, since Manet, a pioneer in depicting modern life in a modern style, was a formative influence on the whole Impressionist movement. 'Olympia' and 'The Picnic' are among the key works of the 19th century.

These, and many other crucial points - among them Manet's personality, with its many contradictions - are fully discussed by John Richardson in his introductory essay, an abridged version of the brilliant text which was widely admired when it was first published in 1958 and which started a full-scale revival of Manet studies.

With notes to the 48 colour plates and comparative illustrations to emphasize the quality, variety and character of Manet's work, this is the perfect introduction to such an influential painter.

Includes 83 illustrations, 52 in colour.

To Maori, the governing principle of mauri brings to all objects the power and prescience of a living spirit. Objects that are hand-crafted from wood, stone, shell, bone or pounamu are imbued with life by their creators. Conveying the mauri of an object through photography requires an exceptional talent, one focused on distilling the essential energy of the original piece through shades of lighting, position and perspective. This is what Brian Brake achieved.

The photos in this collection constitute the best of Brake's photographic journey into the world of the Maori. Drawn from work completed for an array of commissions, the images include both those that travelled the world and those rarely seen before.

Taken as a whole, they form a celebration of diversity and richness in artistic expression, encompassing carved houses and woven panels, sculpture and tools, ornaments and jewellery, ritual objects and weapons.

Recognised as New Zealand's greatest photographer, Brake pursued his passion for the visual image across every continent, but his love for the country of his birth remained unshakeable. Featuring contributions from Witi Ihimaera and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Maori Art: The Photography of Brian Brake makes a statement not only of Maori art history but also the career of a man who sought perfection in photographic endeavour.

The definitive monograph on an artist who pioneered the use of the body in art.

Since the early 1970s, Marina Abramovic (b.1946) has pioneered the use of performance as a visual art form, exploring her physical and emotional limits in some of the most iconic works in contemporary art. Her body is her primary subject and medium, from the early sound-based performances in her native Yugoslavia, to her collaborative works with German artist Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen), her videos exploring her Balkan heritage, and most recently her re-enactments of historical performances by fellow artists such as Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Valie Export.

Abramovic features prominently in virtually every survey of performance art, and her works are held in the permanent collections of the world's most prestigious museums, including the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2005 at New York's Guggenheim Museum Abramovic staged a landmark week-long series of performances entitled Seven Easy Pieces. Her twelve-day 'living installation' The House with The Ocean View was on numerous critics' lists as the best exhibition of 2002, and she was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1997 Venice Biennale for her video installation/performance Balkan Baroque.

Kristine Stiles's Survey covers the artist's remarkable career, from her early days in Belgrade to her collaboration with Ulay and her most recent film and performance works. In the Interview Klaus Biesenbach discusses with the artist her motivations and influences, as well as the role of performance art today. Chrissie Iles's Focus looks at the durational performance The House with The Ocean View, in which the artist spent twelve consecutive days in a confined space at a gallery in New York. Artist's Choice features an excerpt from French writer Alexandra David-Néel's log about her visit to Tibet in the 1920s and the magic rituals she witnessed there. Artist's Writings include early interviews, proposals for unrealized projects and diary entries, providing an overview of the artist's thinking on the subjects of art, performance and experience.

Marlene Dumas, a South African-born, Amsterdam-based painter, is one of the world's most admired artists, a titan of contemporary painting. She recalls in her work the painterly gestures of Expressionism while combining the critical distance of Conceptual art with the pleasures of eroticism. Through her delicately painted oil-on-canvas or ink-and-watercolour depictions of the female form as well as portraits of children and erotic scenes, she comments on the state of painting today. What does it mean to be a woman working within the predominantly male genre of expressionist painting? The artist often depicts women: their expressions, their body and facial typologies, their self-image, their ideals.

The relationships between art and female beauty - or between art-historical models and twentieth-century supermodels - are constant themes in her work. Dumas does not paint from life but deliberately chooses 'stock' images from a variety of sources, from magazine cuttings to picture postcards to Old Master paintings, as re-observed through her contemporary perspective. Since the late 1970s she has exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, London (1996), the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (1998), the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp (1999) , the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2002). Her work has been shown in some of the world's top international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (1995 and 2005), where she represented the Netherlands in 1995.

New York artist Barbara Bloom interviews Dumas on questions contemporary women artists are asked, from issues of intellectual process to the representation of the self.

Dominic van den Boogerd surveys themes in Dumas' work in relation to a range of conceptual legacies in depictions of the human figure.

Art journalist and former Editor of Vogue Italia Mariuccia Casadio focuses on Dumas' painting Josephine (1997), reflecting on the iconic legacy of Josephine Baker.

The update section by American art critic Jan Avgikos surveys Marlene Dumas' work from 1999 to present.

Hilary Spurling's fascinating exploration of Matisse's world uncovers the secret life of the artist, whose paintings shocked and infuriated his contemporaries while paving the way for modern art. In this beautifully presented second volume, Spurling tells the story of Matisse's growing artistic maturity and the relationship between his life and art from 1909 to 1954, his glory years.

HENRI MATISSE, one of the greatest innovators of twentieth-century painting, was an intensely private person.It was not until half a century after his death that Hilary Spurling's two-part biography cleared away the fog of inaccurate guesswork and gossip that obscured both the man and at times his work. Matisse: The Life contains the pith of those two volumes, universally acclaimed for their revelatory insight, meticulous scholarship and brilliant storytelling.
 
This new, one-volume edition centres on the ferocious struggles that underlay the radiant serenity of Matisse's work, and traces their intimate connection to the personal disasters that beset him, his family and his country through two world wars.This is, in the author's own words, the 'short, sharp, clear portrait I should have liked to write in the first place'.

PRAISE FOR THE UNKNOWN MATISSE

'A marvellous sunburst of a biography' Richard Holmes, Daily Telegraph

'Reveals a personality – and a personal history – none of us had guessed at' Richard Dorment, The New York Review of Books

'Matisse is truly amazing, and it is an amazing story . . . Outstanding' Philip Hensher, Spectator

PRAISE FOR MATISSE THE MASTER

'A true biographical masterpiece' Mark Bostridge, Independent on Sunday

'An outstanding biography, as full of insight into the pictures as it is revealing about the man' Jeanette Winterson, The Times

'As dazzling as its subject . . . superb' Peter Conrad, Observer

A survey of one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance.

A legend within his own lifetime, Michelangelo (1457-1564) has been universally admired in the centuries since his death. Anthony Hughes employs the latest evidence from research and restoration projects to take a fresh look at what Michelangelo was and what he has become. The book sets the artist firmly within the political and social world he inhabited, offering a full account of his creative endeavours in sculpture, drawing, painting, architecture and poetry.

Minimalism comprises one of the key movements in post-war art. The term 'minimalism' was coined to describe the work of a group of American artists who, in the 1960s, produced a decidedly unexpressionistic, reductive work with a hard industrial feel. While numerous minimalist painters exist, among them Robert Ryman, Robert Mangold and Brice Marden, most of the key Minimalists - Andre, Flavin, Judd, LeWitt and Morris - produced sculptures or, as some put it, 'specific objects' or 'objects in a world of objects'.

Although none of the artists actually accepted the term 'Minimalism', their common use of serial, modular or repeating forms (from Carl Andre's floor sculptures of readymade bricks or Judd's stacked boxes) as well as the abstraction and industrial production of the work, drew these artists' work together. As opposed to the vulgar and populist Pop Art, Minimalism, like conceptualism, considered itself 'high art'. These artists' aim was to create an art that was non-hierarchical (no single part of the work takes precedence over any other) and thus entirely democratic.

With direct access to many of the artists' archives, this book is the most comprehensive and definitive sourcebook on Minimalism available.

Survey Critic and art historian James Meyer, a leading authority on Minimalism, examines the movement from its beginnings to its broader cultural influence.

Works provides an extensive colour plate section with extended captions for every artwork. The excellent selection of images illustrates the surprising variety of work, and also relates it to other artists such as Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson.

An introduction to the work of Modigliani.

Amedco Modigliani (1884-1920) was one of the many and diverse talents who were drawn to Paris in the early years of this century, making the city a vibrant but pressurised environment for artistic expression. A legend grew up around Modigliani, who, along with others, engendered the concept of the 'peintre maudit' - the accursed painter - whose poverty, corruption and excess were the very seeds from which his remarkable works of art were conceived.

Unlike the Italian Futurists, who stormed at their own overwhelming tradition, Modigliani seemed to sense the possibility of returning to it for renewal. His interpretation of a central theme of the tradition, the reclining female nude, produced a series of uniquely beautiful works, outstanding in the grace and harmony of their linear designs and the quality of their colour. Nudes, portraits and studies of a surprising range of personalities and psychological types are represented in this ideal introduction to the artist, as is a selection of his remarkable stone carvings, of which about 25 survive.

Includes 87 illustrations, 53 in colour.

The unmistakable work of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) is characterized by its rhythm, clarity and bold colours. Often considered wholly non-representational, his paintings were in fact inspired directly by his experience of life.

By examining Mondrian's fascinating process of working - through his drawings, studies and finished paintings - John Milner explores the energetic tension between the brilliantly disciplined compositions and their underlying subject matter.

A masterful account of the life and work of Piet Mondrian.

Impressionism took its name from the title of a painting that Claude Monet (1840-1926) exhibited in 1874. More than any other artist, Monet was the creator of the Impressionist vision, which has so forcefully shaped the way in which he habitually see nature today. For sixty years he continuously explored ways of translating his experiences into paint, in pictures that take us from the bustling life of Paris in the 1860s to the seclusion of his own water-garden, which he painted in his last years.

John House's introduction to Monet's life and work presents a sequence of dazzling illustrations that chart the artist's progress as he became increasingly preoccupied with colour and atmospheric effect, and the direct studies of nature gave way to paintings of greater richness and harmony, in which the play of varied colours replaced the conventional drawing and modelling of forms.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is the only Scandinavian painter of modern times to have achieved a world reputation. A tragic childhood – his mother died when he was five and a sister when he was thirteen – wounded him deeply, and much of his early work expresses this in its agonized pessimism. In the first half of his career he lived much of his life in Germany, and became one of the fathers of modern German art. After 1900, however, and particularly after his return to Norway in 1909 following a severe nervous breakdown, his subjects tended to become more extrovert and objective, while his palette assumed increasingly brighter colours. The period 1910-20 was a particularly prolific one, in which he painted mural decorations for Oslo University and many other outdoor subjects, but Munch continued working throughout his life and produced some remarkable sefl-portraits shortly before his death.

This introduction to the art of Munch includes forty-eight full-page colour plates, of work from all stages of his career, from the naturalism of the early work, through the symbolic psychological dramas of the 1980s to the brilliant colours of the later works. John Boulton Smith's authoritative essay on Munch has here been revised and updated. The plates are complemented by notes written by art historian James Malpas, discussing each painting in detail, and there is a wealth of black-and-white comparative illustrations.

This book brings together the answers to almost 200 questions Charles Saatchi, the world's most influential art collector of the last thirty years, has been asked by journalists and visitors to his gallery. Whether the questions are related to art or his personal life, Saatchi answers them all with disarming and sometimes brutal frankness, creating an entertaining and enlightening portrait of a famously publicity shy man, and offering a unique insight into today's art world.

Sample questions include:

• What's the point of art?
• How do you decide whether something is worth £10 or £10 million?
• What do you think of the art world?
• What advice do you and your wife give your children?
• Have you ever taken advantage of anyone in the art world?
• How do you rate political advertising today?
• I know very little about contemporary art but have £1,000 to invest. Any advice?
• So much contemporary art looks the same to me. Am I missing something?
• The artist Peter Blake has called you a 'malign influence' because of the way you can 'make' certain artists. Are you a malign influence?

The definitive survey of contemporary abstract painting, featuring eighty of the most innovative painters from around the world.

Painting is more popular than ever. Collectors and museumgoers can't seem to get enough, with record auction prices and blockbuster exhibitions cementing the medium's priveleged position in the public heart. Most of the attention around painting in recent years has focused on figuration, leaving abstraction a site for free experimentation. During those years abstract painting has developed a rich complexity that more than ever rewards careful viewing.

Painting Abstraction is the first comprehensive guide to contemporary abstract painting published in years. Beginning with a 4,000-word introduction that puts the subject in historical context, curator Bob Nickas introduces the reader to the key issues in contemporary abstraction. He goes on to organize 80 artists into six chapters: 1. 'Hybrid Pictures/Image-as-Abstraction'; 2. 'Rhythm and Opticality'; 3. 'Colour and Structure'; 4. 'Found/Eccentric Abstraction'; 5. 'Form, Space and Scale'; and 6. 'The Act of Painting'. Each artist's work is illustrated in lavish full-colour images and accompanied by a text that leads the reader through the paintings in language both accessible and illuminating. The product of extensive new research and several dozen studio visits with artists around the world, Nickas's text brings out the key details and distinctions in their work, creating a vivid picture of a field awash in creative innovation. Painting Abstraction is an essential reference tool for curators, critics, artists and collectors, and a major statement on the future of painting from one of contemporary art's most respected curators.

Photo-realism, abstraction, portraiture, installation painting, neo-expressionism and the Leipzig School are just some of the areas of this thriving medium explored in Painting Today. This comprehensive survey of contemporary painting presents the broad range of styles, materials and methods that comprise the artform, extending the tradition of Phaidon's trail-blazing Art Today. Since the proclaimed 'death of painting' in 1968, artists around the globe have nevertheless continued to expand its imagery, techniques and meanings, and in over 500 illustrations this book presents the work of both famous and emergent painters active around the world. Tony Godfrey presents a lively and authoritive view of the vast range of possibilities that painting today encompasses.

An exploration of the influential artist's mysterious painted worlds.

Whether painting a mysterious bearded figure floating on a flat wash of blue or a winter landscape glimpsed through a thick web of branches, Peter Doig harnesses the materiality of his medium to create what he calls 'abstractions of memories', distilling recollected sensations into moments of pure sentience, like scenes in a series of mysterious narratives. In Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre (2000-2) two costumed figures stand guard at a low stone wall while behind them a reservoir reflects a twinkling starry sky. The young man bundled up against the cold in Blotter (1993) contemplates his reflection in a frozen pond, while in Red Boat (Imaginary Boys) (2004) six men in white shirts navigate upstream through a dense tropical landscape.

Doig's work has been exhibited at the world's top museums, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and has been selected for contemporary art's most important international exhibitions, such as the SITE Santa Fe Biennial (2006), the Tate Triennial (2003 and 2006) and the Venice Biennale (2003). Although his work has had an enormous impact on contemporary painting, paving the way for a whole generation of idiosyncratic figurative painters, his painted worlds are without parallel. Raised in Canada, based in London for two decades and now living in Trinidad, Doig has tallied a wide range of references, not only geographic (from French modernist architecture to the ski slopes of Quebec) but also artistic (from Ernst Kirchner to Philip Guston) and musical (from punk to calypso). Sometimes these references lurk in plain sight – Figure in Mountain Landscape (1997-8) is based on a photograph of Group of Seven painter Franklin Carmichael – but most often they lie deep below the churning surface of the canvas.

An introduction to the work of Picasso.

The name which predominates in the development of art throughout the twentieth century, and to which many of the revolutionary changes are ascribed, is that of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Not only was he one of the most influential artists, he was also one of the most versatile.

This beautifully produced book surveys the whole range of his paintings, from the haunting works of the Blue Period, to the brute power of 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', the lyrical sweetness of his family portraits, the revolutionary developments of Cubism and the later manifold experimentations with form and colour.

Includes 85 illustrations, 50 in colour.

A survey of the revered 15th-century artist, illustated with new photography.

An introduction to the work of Camille Pissarro.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was not only a central figure in the Impressionist movement but a major influence on the development of modern art. He was the only artist to exhibit at all eight of the Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, and his letters are a fascinating and invaluable source of information on the theoretical aspects and practical implications of Impressionism.

Pissarro's career touched that of an extraordinary number of his contemporaries, to whom he was often a teacher and always a friend. In his early years he worked with Monet; in the 1870s he painted in close friendship with Cezanne; he was a guide for Gauguin, whom he introduced to the Impressionist group; and in the 1880s he flirted with Neo-Impressionism with Seurat.

This book charts the evolution of his painting, and celebrates his compositional brilliance, technical skill and innovatory approach. Forty-eight full page colour plates, combined with Lloyd's illuminating text, constitute a superb introduction to the artist.

Includes 83 illustrations, 51 in colour.

From the late 1950s to the late 1960s the word Pop described art, film, photography and architectural design which engaged with the new realities of mass production and the mass media. Unlike books which present Pop art in isolation, this is a comprehensive survey of Pop in all its forms across America, Britain and Europe.

In addition to the key artworks by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, Richard Hamilton, Sigmar Polke, Martial Raysse and many others the book includes works of photography and avant-garde film, as well as what the critic Reyner Banham defined as Pop architecture, ranging from Alison and Peter Smithson's House of the Future to Archigram's Walking City and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's Learning from Las Vegas.

Editor Mark Francis was former Founding Director of the Andy Warhol Museum and editor of 'Les Années Pop' (Centre Georges Pompidou, 2001). Survey author Hal Foster is Professor of Art at Princeton University, author of The Return of the Real and editor of the bestselling The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture and Recodings: Art, Spectacle, Cultural Politics.

A study of the world's most poignant and honest portrait painter.

An introduction to the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-82) produced some of the most glittering and evocative images of the Victorian era. A member of the influential Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti found inspiration in the writings of Dante, Shakespeare and Malory, with many of his paintings depicting scenes from Arthurian legends and tales of medieval chivalry. He was also an accomplished poet, whose verses frequently dealt with the same themes as his paintings.

A notorious womaniser, Rosetti immortalised the women in his life, particularly his wife and pupil Elizabeth Siddal, who died of an overdose in 1862, and later Jane Morris, with whom he was in love. Representing them as Beatrice, Mary Magdalene and Helen of Troy, among others, Rosetti created a new ideal of female beauty, far removed from the more tradition aesthetic of the day. His brilliant use of colour and his originality of vision have ensured his reputation as one of the most gifted painters of the nineteenth century.

Includes 89 illustrations, 48 in colour.

The most comprehensive reference book on contemporary art group exhibitions.

'Salon to Biennial' documents in two volumes the most important international group art exhibitions from 1863 to today, and is the most comprehensive reference book on the subject. The result of years of research, it assembles for the first time a wealth of rare and never before published documentary material and ephemera, from installation images and reviews, to floor plans and catalog excerpts. Providing a unique and invaluable insight into the evolution of curatorial practice, it looks at the history of contemporary art through the lens of its most significant exhibitions. 'Salon to Biennial' functions as a dynamic source book by juxtaposing primary material with historical analysis by author Bruce Altshuler. Volume 1 of 'Salon to Biennial' documents twenty-four of the most groundbreaking international exhibitions from 1863 to 1958. Opening with the seminal 'Salon des Refuses' (Paris, 1863), an empowering exhibition both for artists and modern art, Volume 1 spans all key art movements of the first half of the 20th century, from Fauvism ('Salon d'Automne,' 1905) to Cubism ('Salon de la Section d'Or,' 1912), Surrealism ('Art of This Century,' 1942; 'First Papers of Surrealism,' 1942) and Abstract Expressionism ('Ninth Street Show,' 1951; 'New American Painting,' 1958) and more. It also features the famous 'Armory Show' of 1913 and Hitler's infamous 'Degenerate Art' exhibition of 1937. Overall, the book provides for the first time ever, through an abundance of documents and images, an extensive and insightful look into the production and reception of exhibitions that made art history.

The most up-to-date monograph on the greatest painter of modern American life.

• Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is the greatest painter of modern American life
• This is the most up-to-date study of its kind and offers a wealth of new insights into Hopper's life and works
• Contains over 200 illustrations and features selected pages from his personal notebooks
• Includes a detailed discussion of a wide range of Hopper's paintings, watercolours and etchings, among which are such iconic works as House by the Railroad (1925) and Nighthawks (1942)
• Examines the influences that led Hopper to create some of the most widely recognized paintings of the twentieth century

An introduction to the work of Alfred Sisley.

Alfred Sisley is now recognised as one of the great landscape painters of the 19th century, and a leading figure in the Impressionist movement. He divided his time between France and England, and the 55 colour illustrations in this book include the celebrated snow scenes of the Paris suburbs, his views of the flooded Seine at Port-Marly, and his paintings of the colourful regattas on the Thames which Kenneth Clark described as embodying 'the perfect moment of Impressionism'.

Richard Shone has completely updated his essay, first published in 1979, and selected new colour plates and added extensive commentaries on the illustrations to make this book an ideal introduction to the work of Alfred Sisley.

Includes 88 illustrations, 55 in colour.

So Far: The Art of Dale Frank 1980-2005 traces a trajectory in the work of Australian artist Dale Frank, considering his early performance artworks of the 1970s and early 1980s and themes that emerged in his work of the mid-1990s onward. It tracks the idea of performance in his work, culminating with a discussion of his most recent paintings. It includes instances of his large-scale drawings, 'social sculpture' performance works and 'Varnish Paintings'.

This is a magnificent career retrospective monograph, notable for its high production values and the new light it sheds on one of Australia's leading painters.

The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, and one who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject.

For the first time in many years the book has been completely redesigned. The illustrations, now in colour throughout, have all been improved and reoriginated, and include six fold-outs. The text has been revised and updated where appropriate, and a number of significant new artists have been incorporated. The bibliographies have been expanded and updated, and the maps and charts redrawn.

The Story of Art has always been admired for two key qualities: it is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to handle. In these respects the new edition is true to its much-loved predecessors: the text runs as smoothly as ever and the improved illustrations are always on the page where the reader needs them. In its new edition, this classic work continues its triumphant progress tirelessly for yet another generation, to remain the title of first choice for any newcomer to art or the connoisseur.

An indispensable and inspiring sourcebook on the British studio pottery movement.

Surrealism is a survey of the twentieth century's longest lasting and, arguably, most influential art movement. Championed and held together by André Breton for over forty years, Surrealism was France's major avant-garde artistic tendency from 1924 onwards, rapidly spreading around the globe to become an international phenomenon. During World War II Surrealism's exiled artists and writers had a major impact on American art and were a primary influence for the Abstract Expressionist generation. The official surrealist movement continued to the end of Breton's life in 1966, and its legacy is still pervasive today, in contemporary art as well as in numerous quotations from surrealist imagery in cinema, advertising and the media.

An introduction to the great Surrealist painters.

Sexual instinct, feeling of death, physical notion of enigma of space . . .' - these, according to Salvador Dali, are the 'great vital constants' that make up the vocabulary of the language of the unconscious - the language of the Surrealist painters. Dealing with the fundamentals of human existence, the Surrealists tried to create an art that is universal in its significance, speaking directly to the spectator's deepest instincts.

Their painting developed in two directions: Ernst, Magritte and Dali reintroduced the powerful figurative imagery which had been largely missing since the revolutions of Fauvism and Cubism; their art was also a revolt against the rationalism of abstract art. Miro, Masson and Matta, on the other hand, pursued the idea of automatism, painting out their inner impulses in spontaneous improvisation.

In this survey of the Surrealist movement, the author presents a wide cross-section of its finest works, with an extended introduction and detailed commentaries on each of the 48 full colour plates.

Includes 80 illustrations, 52 in colour.

10,000 Years of Art brings an innovative, global perspective to the presentation of art history. All periods and regions of the world are represented in 500 great works of art carefully selected to create an accessible, informative guide to creative human endeavour. Arranged in chronological order, this group of works breaks through the usual geographical and cultural boundaries employed by art historians and celebrates the vast range of human artistry.

Each work is accompanied by key caption information (date, title, place of origin, style or culture, medium, dimensions etc.) and a text that provides critical review of the work, explaining its contribution to the development of the history of art.

This convenient, pocket-sized book is a companion volume to Phaidon's critically acclaimed 30,000 Years of Art (2008), described by The Daily Telegraph as 'a bold new publishing event that promises to redefine the parameters of art history'. 10,000 Years of Art lives up to the promise of its sister publication, providing an indispensable resource for any art enthusiast.

A new monograph exploring the life and works of Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), an artist whose life, imagination and legacy continue to enthrall audiences, artists and critics alike.

Géricault's small but varied oeuvre has consistently defied easy definition; the artist himself struggled throughout his short career with the conflicting demands of the grand Neo-classical style and radical Romanticism. He was drawn to subjects of drama and horror, painting gruesome scenes of life in France as Napoleon's Empire ceded to a restored Monarchy – few more shocking than the cannibalism among shipwrecked victims that inspired his masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa.Yet equally significant in his artistic production was a passion for the wild imagery of horses, which even dictated his choice of painting teacher and led to some of the greatest equestrian portraits and history paintings in French art. Géricault also took great interest in the depths of the human mind, which inspired his riveting portraits.

In this incisive and comprehensive survey, Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer pays tribute to established Géricault scholarship, but also reassesses the career of an artist too easily miscast as the archetypal 'tortured soul' of art-historical Romantic mythology. Athanassoglou-Kallmyer discusses all the artist's key paintings and drawings, with particular attention to the iconic Raft of the Medusa, the history of its production and its artistic afterlife up to the present day.

30,000 Years of Art presents 1000 great works of art from all periods and regions in the world, arranged in chronological order for a general readership. Breaking through the usual geographical and cultural boundaries of art history, it celebrates the vast range of human artistry across time and space. Each work is accompanied by key caption information (date, title, place of origin, style or culture, medium, dimensions etc.), and a short text providing more information and explaining the art historical context.

The book presents art in a way different from other art history compendia, revealing the huge diversity, or in many cases similarity, of man's artistic achievements through time and around the globe. Ordered chronologically, the resulting timeline of works leads to compelling browsing: surprising juxtapositions offer intellectual pleasure and a sense of wonder and discovery. The selection of works from across the world, arranged in the sequence in which they were made, take the reader on a global and historical journey, as a Chinese Shang urn stands next to a Mycenaean vase, and Michelangelo's Slave is followed by a contemporaneous male sculpture from Nigeria. The chronological arrangement responds to such questions as where does the earliest art appear? What were artists creating in China or Africa while Rembrandt was painting self-portraits in Leyden? How were similar subjects – equestrian themes, landscapes, religious scenes – manipulated by artists in Aztec Mexico and Medieval Europe?

Although the sequence of works in the book is strictly chronological, the selection of entries for an individual culture comprises an abbreviated history of the art of that people. Thus, while artworks from ancient Greece or the European Renaissance or pre-Columbian Americas are interspersed with contemporaneous works created in Africa, India or Japan, an extraction of the Greek or Renaissance or American works could stand alone as an essential abridgement of the finest art of that period or culture.

The work of Thomas Hirshhorn (b. Bern, Switzerland, 1957), recently on view at such major international art venues as the Tate Modern (2003), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, 2001), and the Art Institute of Chicago (2000), are giant, labour-intensive, room-sized collages of low grade materials, that is to say, rubbish. Part-text, part-sculpture, part-junkheap, incorporating furniture, cardboard boxes, wooden frames and more, these baroque installations reflect an extraordinarily prolific imagination. Their sheer volume and the time it takes to read and see these massive, detailed installations make them unforgettable, often quite humorous experiences unlike the work of any other contemporary artist. Included in Phaidon's Fresh Cream in 2000, Thomas Hirschhorn is among the most significant artists to have emerged internationally in the 1990s. He has exhibited in the world's key art surveys (among others, Documenta 11, Kassel, 2003; and the 48th Venice Biennale, 1999) and art spaces, and was recipient of the prestigious Prix Marcel Duchamp, Paris, 2001. Thomas Hirschhorn is a Swiss-born artist who emerged in the 1990s art world, and known for his giant, labour-intensive, room-sized co
The only comprehensive monograph on this intellectually provocative artist.

Born in Germany and based in London, Tomma Abts has received considerable acclaim for her paintings and drawings. Her work has been shown at such major international exhibitions as the Berlin Biennial (2006) and the Carnegie International (2004), as well as at prestigious museums across Europe, including Kunsthalle Basel (2005) and Van Abbemuseum (2004). In 2006 she was awarded the Turner Prize.

Each Tomma Abts painting is the result of an intuitive process, a complex operation of addition and substraction. Within rigid parameters - unvarying materials and size - she conjures a progression of shapes and colours, building layer upon layer of seemingly spontaneous geometry until the work reaches its culmination: an abstract arrangement in perfect tension.

This volume, the artist's first extensive monograph, provides a comprehensive survey of her work, with full-colour images of thirty-seven paintings, and eighteen drawings, as well as three specially commissioned essays. In the first essay, Laura Hoptman dismantles abstraction's historical framework to illustrate the uniqueness of Abts' approach. Jan Verwoert meditates on the subversive power of contemplation, findind in Abts' artistic process a validation of 'the beauty of latency.' And Bruce Hainley gazes at Abts' work through the fictional eyes of Margit Carstensen - actress, muse, and star of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.

An introduction to the work of Toulouse-Lautrec.

This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

An overview of the prolific career of the highly influential artist.

An introduction to the work of Turner.

J M W Turner (1775-1851) is the most masterly of British painters. His work exploits the great traditions of European painting, while anticipating the development of modern art in the 20th century. As a Romantic, he was from his earliest works sensitive to the dramas found in land- and seascapes, though increasingly light and colour alone became all-important to him. He travelled through England, France, Italy and Switzerland, and his views are possibly the most imaginative evocations of these countries ever painted.

The original essay by William Gaunt, an authority on British art, has been updated for this edition by the adding of plate commentaries and many black and white illustrations, making it a perfect introduction to one of the greatest British masters.

Includes 86 illustrations, 52 in colour.

A survey of Vincent van Gogh's brief but astonishingly eventful career.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) became, in the century following his death, an individual of undisputed universal acclaim. His brief but astoundingly eventful life has inspired the scrutiny of other painters, film-makers, psychologists and novelists, and his personal celebrity outstrips even the substantial fame of his works.

While the popular appeal of such pictures as Sunflowers or Starry Night resides in their seemingly emotion-fuelled spontaneity, they are in fact the products of a reflective and idea-driven man who was profoundly interested in and inspired by all manner of literary, musical and artistic sources. Spanning his early work in the Netherlands, the formative years in and around Paris, and the intense, vibrant studies of peasants and the countryside of the South of France, this survey makes extensive use of Van Gogh's own correspondence to illuminate his artistic development and the personal vision that lies behind his work. The result is a balanced and sensitive account of this most innovative and influential of artists.

An introduction to the work of Vincent Van Gogh.

This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

Towards the end of Van Gogh's short life, during his time in Provence, his pictures of flowers and plants acquired a singular beauty and intensity. Nature and the countryside provided him with the inspiration, restorative power and freshness of subject matter for which he seems to have yearned. The sight of trees in blossom, flowery meadows, sunflowers and irises prompted endless experiments in colour and movement to result in a wealth of vibrant and intensely beautiful paintings.

This stunning book celebrates Van Gogh's profound love of flowers. It contains a broad selection of ravishing colour illustrations, together with a number of the artist's alluring and intriguing pen-and-ink drawings, which demonstrate the vigorous and individual calligraphy of his work. The text draws upon Van Gogh's own moving and descriptive letters to show the great importance to him of nature and flowers, and includes documentary material that is essential and exclusive.

An introduction to the work of Jan Vermeer.

Johannes Vermeer of Delft (1632-75), known as 'the painter of light', was one of the most talented artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Only 36 of his paintings survive and little is known about his life, yet he is one of the most popular of the Old Masters. His tranquil and meticulously painted interiors, of such subjects as women writing or reading love letters, and men and women drinking together or playing musical instruments, are acutely observed and have an enduring appeal, both for their subject-matter and for the artist's breath-taking technique and sensuous handling of paint.

Vermeer qualified as a master painter in the Delft artists' Guild in 1653 and remained in the town all his life. He was greatly influenced by the artistic milieu, particularly by the painters Carel Fabritius, Leonaert Bramer, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard Dou. This book illustrates in colour all his extant works, including the magnificent townscape, 'View Of Delft', and the allegory, 'The Art Of Painting', and provides an excellent overview of his work and technique.

Includes 85 illustrations, 48 in colour.

A scholarly and entertaining survey of painting during the Victorian era.

The only comprehensive monograph on the virtuoso painter.

The magnificent artworks of the Latvia-born, U.S.-based Vija Celmins (b.1938) all testify to her undying fascination with the world around her - whether commonplace objects in her studio, the natural landscapes of her adopted California, or the pebbles beneath her feet. Primarily a painter of still life and landscape, Celmins is associated with 1960s Pop art and often uses photographs to create her signature 'impossible images', such as just-fired revolvers or exploding airplanes.

Temporarily abandoning painting in the 1970s, Celmins turned her attention to drawing exquisite graphite seascapes and other vast natural landscapes. Like the night skies she began in the 1980s, the artist explains, hers are 'unbound spaces' wrestled into two-dimensions. As with her later spider webs, Celmins often blurs the boundaries of photography, painting, printmaking and drawing.

Now based in New York, Celmins has exhibited widely since the 1960s in museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the ICA, London; Museu Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt.

Vitamin D offers a fresh and pioneering overview of the current state and underlying significance of drawing as an artistic medium. It highlights the originality and innovation with which contemporary artists in the genre - from across the world and in a vast variety of contexts - experiment with a diversity of styles and statements.

Vitamin D features the work of 109 up-and-coming artists, selected by some of the world's foremost critics and curators of today for their unique outlook. It is in itself an artistic compilation of the endless possibilities that drawing offers an artist from any background.

This book is a captivating composition of examples of the evolution of drawing in the twenty-first century. It reveals the energy of contemporary drawing, in a subtle presentation of the richness and versatility of the medium. With several pages dedicated to images of each artist's work and a deeply analytical parallel text, Vitamin D is at once a detailed reference book for art world afficianados and an absorbing introduction for newcomers to the scene.

Astonishingly up-to-the-minute, highly informative and aesthetically stimulating, this book is an essential work in its own right, through its exposition of just how fundamental an artistic medium drawing continues to be.

Vitamin P is an image-heavy book offering an overview of the state of painting today, and documents the most recent concerns and ideas among contemporary painters. In the wake of new media such as installation, video, performance and digital art, the traditional medium of painting has enjoyed a renaissance among a recent generation of artists. Alongside the evergrowing reputation of significant living painters such as Gerhard Richter, Agnes Martin and Peter Halley, many younger artists have chosen painting over any other medium, and are exploring new means to broaden the traditional field of 'oil on canvas'. It is this younger generation (who emerged in the 1990s) that Vitamin P aims to represent in an A-Z survey of 114 of its leading, new, international practitioners, with each artist illustrated by numerous examples of his or her works, accompanied by a short explanatory text. Often moving beyond the most traditional image associated with this medium, Vitamin P hopes to illustrate the richness, eclecticism, dynamism and contemporaneity of the practice of painting today. Barry Schwabsky's introductory text offers a critical survey of the evolution of painting since the late 1950's

A beautfully designed and darkly comic collection of art, this book is a brilliant retrospective of Shrigley's work. This is a celebration of the surreal creations of one of the world's finest contemporary artists.

An introduction to the work of James McNeill Whistler.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was one of the most original artists of the late 19th century. Flamboyant dandy and ebullient publicist, friend of Oscar Wilde, Whistler was also a meticulous craftsman dedicated to the perfection of his art. Whistler was born in America but trained in Paris. He began as a realist painter but gradually developed a startlingly original method of composition, refining his technique to the barest essentials. He was one of the first to argue that the abstract ingredients of a painting - the lines, shapes, colours and tones - could in themselves be the subject; he entitled the portrait of his mother 'Arrangement In Grey And Black'.

This book provides a wide survey of carefully selected works, illustrated with 48 full page colour plates and accompanying notes, making it an ideal introduction to Whistler's art.

Includes 91 illustrations, 48 in colour.