With vivid memories of his first visit to the Scottish National Gallery in the 1970s and his initial encounter with Hugo van der Goes’ The Trinity Altarpiece, Rembrandt’s A Woman in Bed, Velázquez’s An Old Woman Cooking Eggs and Degas’ Diego Martelli, Robert Storr discusses the shifting balance of museum collections from historically ‘certified’ classics to art whose status and significance remains in active contention and from singular ‘treasures’ to ensembles that speak to the larger scope of an artist’s endeavour. Also available: Unfinished Paintings: Narratives of the Non-Finito Watson Gordon Lecture 2014 ISBN 9781906270919 ‘The Hardest Kind of Archetype’: Reflections on Roy Lichtenstein The Watson Gordon Lecture 2010 ISBN 9781906270384 Picasso’s ‘Toys for Adults’ Cubism as Surrealism: The Watson Gordon Lecture 2008 ISBN 9781906270261 Sound, Silence, and Modernity in Dutch Pictures of Manners The Watson Gordon Lecture 2007 ISBN 9781906270254 Roger Fry’s Journey From the Primitives to the Post-Impressionists: Watson Gordon Lecture 2006 ISBN 9781906270117

This volume, edited by Antonio Aimi and Antonio Guarnotta, offers a new, up-to-date study of the most important cultures of Mesoamerica and of the Peruvian Area, through magnificent artefacts held by the MIC (Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza) and various other Italian museums. The cultures of the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas and other populations of ancient America are analysed in light of the most recent archaeological and ethnohistorical research. Themes of prime importance are examined in depth: the conquest of America as seen from the point of view of the conquered, the status of women, the systems of calculation of ancient Peru, and pre-Columbian art presented as art, not only as archaeology.

Text in English and Italian.

This book is about a human adventure – that of photographer Julius Mwelu, a gifted and generous Kenyan who was born, lived and survived in Mathare Valley. This part of Nairobi is one of the huge slums that constitute a permanent social blight in Kenya’s capital. There, in the destitution of an overpopulated district, poor and with little to hope for, the photographer and his team went walking among the people, the sheet metal roofs and the jerry-cans. Above all, though, Julius trained and encouraged children and teenagers to see the world around them in a different light. Trained by their mentor in the use of the camera lens, these youngsters in turn took a complicit but distinctly critical look at the state of the place where they live. With this delicate blend of tenderness and realism, Mwelu offers us 112 testimonies to his mission as an artist and an educator.

Text in English, French and Dutch.

Also available in the Africalia series: Grassroots Upgraded ISBN 9789058563910 Sammy Baloji ISBN 9789058563965 Calvin Dondo ISBN 9789058564214 Kiripi Katembo ISBN 9789058565174 Teddy Mazina ISBN: 9789058565167

Yoga and the City photographically documents a variety of people who are committed to yoga philosophy and yoga lifestyles in big cities – people, who live in the middle of hustle and bustle, but manage to maintain their harmony and happiness. It doesn’t matter what is surrounding them, what really matters is how they look at everything around them. Possibly, when people see this photography, they will decide to try yoga or meditation. Yoga and the City combines art, spirituality, and sport. It is a reflection of strength and power – strength to overcome adversities and to find balance while living in a fast paced environment. Yoga is a way to find alignment, to become closer to your spiritual core.

“This book celebrates teamwork and collaboration over the individual, a refreshing take on a practice which is given to celebrating starchitects.” —Peter H. Miller, Traditional Building
In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt, all young architects just starting out in practice, shared office space in Chicago. This book is both a history of that brief period and an attempt to assess the extent to which they collaborated on their architectural designs and on the creation of architectural theory which would impact a half century of architectural design. While there is little firsthand documentation of the time spent in their shared loft office in Steinway Hall, this study engages in a side by side comparison of projects they each designed while working there. Overlapping ideas, design similarities, and an analysis of their subsequent work, all suggest that these men formed a creative “collaborative circle” of friends, who jointly developed ideas later claimed as the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a book about artistic collaboration at a time when discussions of art and architectural history are still largely dominated by the belief that significant works are created by the lone artistic genius.
At the turn of the last century Spencer, Perkins, Hunt, and Wright were part of a community of architects who were all active members of the Chicago Architectural. Steinway Hall, an office building designed by Dwight Perkins, became a home to Chicago’s architectural community with as many as 50 different architects renting space in that building at the turn of the last century. Based on Real Estate Directories from 1897 through 1910 the book includes a listing of the architects that worked and interacted there. Also included are brief biographies of Spencer, Perkins, and Hunt. Excepting Hunt, none of these men have been the subject of individual publications. While Frank Lloyd Wright’s life and work have been extensively chronicled, this book reexamines the period between Wright’s arrival in Chicago in 1887 and his move into the loft office in Steinway Hall in 1897.

This publication commemorates the public unveiling of the Sherwin and Shirley Glass Glass Collection at the Flint Institute of Arts in its new wing, dedicated to contemporary craft. Amassed during a ten-year period by Atlanta-based collectors Sherwin and Shirley Glass, this contemporary glass collection represents the greatest achievements by a large and diverse group of important international artists. With glass masterworks by more than 85 artists representing 19 countries around the world, this collection shows an explosion of creativity in the medium of glass from the late 20th through the early 21st century.

In this catalogue, FIA Executive Director John Henry demonstrates why Flint, Michigan, is an ideal location for a contemporary craft wing; Habatat Galleries founder Ferd Hampson discusses how the Glasses’ collecting interests represented a “quest for the best”, and Patricia Grieve Watkinson contextualises the Glass Glass Collection within international and American glass movements.

Contents: Contemporary Craft in Flint – John B. Henry; A Quest for the Best – Ferdinand Hampson; Tradition, Innovation, and Meaning: The Sherwin and Shirley Glass Collection – Patricia Grieve Watkinson.

Stucco decorations have traditionally been studied considering their formal and artistic qualities. Although much research and numerous publications have explored the works of stucco artists and their cultural context, little attention has been paid to their professional role in relation to the other actors involved in the decorative process (architects, painters, sculptors, patrons), the technical skills of these artists, and how their know-how contributed to the great professional success they enjoyed. From the 16th to the 18th century, many of the stucco decorations in churches and palaces throughout Europe were made by masters from the border area between what is now Canton Ticino and Lombardy. This collection of essays aims to examine how these artists worked from Spain to Poland, from Denmark to Italy, via the Netherlands, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Austria, adapting to the realities of the different contexts. The authors examine these issues with an interdisciplinary approach, considering art history and social history, the history of artistic techniques, and the science of materials. 

Text in English and Italian.

John Ruskin wrote this fable for a teenage family friend, Effie, and later he married her. The marriage was famously disastrous, but before it fell apart the Ruskins allowed The King of the Golden River to be published. It became one of the most popular works for children of its time. Richard Doyle contributed over 25 full-page illustrations and vignettes.

The King of the Golden River is the first literary fairy tale in English (as opposed to collected folk tales). Ruskin himself said it was ‘a fairly good imitation of Grimm and Dickens, mixed with some true Alpine feeling of my own’. Later he spoke of the capacity of the traditional tales ‘to fortify children against the glacial cold of selfish science’.

It remains a powerful fable about humanity’s dual capacity for destructiveness and redeeming love, with as strange fairy-tale creatures as one could hope to meet.

An essay by Simon Cooke explains the book’s importance.

With this new guide in your bag, you’re set to go out and discover the best and most fun places in hotspot Miami: 500 addresses that many tourists don’t know, a bit off the beaten track, but always loved by the locals and worth a visit. The 500 Hidden Secrets of Miami will take you to all the places that make Miami the lively and unique city it is, also known as the ‘Gateway to the Caribbean’, such as: the 5 nicest water views, 5 stunning Mediterranean revival buildings, 5 renowned Miami-based fashion designers, the 5 coolest hotel pools, and 5 wonderful parks, playgrounds, and museums to visit with your kids. It even includes some unusual experiences, such as swimming in a freshwater Venetian pool, or day trips to the Everglades and the Keys.

This is the first major book on English blue and white porcelain since the early 1970s. Not only is it the latest and most up-to-date work, but it includes types not previously studied and extends the range of wares into the early years of the nineteenth-century. It is a unique, comprehensive study. The number of instructive illustrations exceeds seven hundred, including helpful comparison photographs and details of identifying features – footrims, handle forms, manufacturing characteristics and marks. Apart from introductory chapters on collecting blue and white and on the introduction and development of this popular mode of decoration, this unique coverage comprises details of over twenty distinct makes, including the relatively newly researched eighteenth century factories at Isleworth, Limehouse and Vauxhall. The inclusion of the several post-1790 factories covers new ground. The section on fakes and reproductions will also prove instructive and helpful. Guidance is given on the popularity of the various types in the market and on past and more recent prices paid for specimens in the London auction rooms. Particular attention has been directed at the three large sales of the late Dr. Bernard Watney’s world renowned collection, held by Messrs. Phillips in 1999 and 2000. General estimates of market values are also offered.

The finest books produced during the quarter century prior to the outbreak of the Great War were almost invariably printed by the private presses, but post-war, with the development of new technology, the accolade of excellence passed into the hands of a small number of commercial firms, with the Curwen Press very much to the fore. Like those earlier printers, Harold Curwen was inspired by the Morrisian ideal, but he did not adhere to the tenet that ‘hand made’ was necessarily better than ‘machine made’, which led him to become one of the pioneering figures in the technical revolution that transformed the printing industry. Harold Curwen joined the family firm in 1908 and by 1916 had instigated a general replanning of the works and, aided by the wartime staff shortage, felt able to push ahead with the installation of modern machinery. He was in the forefront of the development of offset lithography, which ensured that the Curwen Press would be in the vanguard of fine colour printing throughout the next decade. Harold also pioneered, as far as England was concerned, the pochoir technique of hand-stencilling. 1922 was the beginning of the Curwen Press’s golden decade, during which it produced The Woodcutter’s Dog, the English language edition of Julius Meier-Graefe’s two volume biography of Van Gogh for the Medici Society, the exhibition catalogue of books and manuscripts for The First Edition Club, Goldoni’s Four Comedies and the delightful little pocket engagement book, The Four Seasons, illustrated by Albert Rutherston. Rutherston was later to illustrate Thomas Hardy’s Yuletide in a Younger World, the first of the Ariel Poems for Faber & Gwyer which were to become a feature of the collaboration between the two firms. In addition there was the ‘Safety First’ Calendar, adorned with Lovat Fraser’s cautionary illustrations. Following restructuring in 1933 the Curwen Press had a further forty years of distinguished work ahead both in the printing of books, particularly those illustrated by Barnett Freedman, as well as jobbing work, including some of the finest posters for the London Underground by Bawden, Wadsworth, John Banting, Betty Swanwick, Barnett Freedman and others. The Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said: “A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb.”
Also available: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

“a well-written, well-referenced and well-illustrated book. It provides a valuable addition to the literature and our understanding of a previously little-researched facet of the industrial midlands” British Art Journal
“Cataloguers now have an impressive volume of new information to draw on when describing anything from a simple tea tray to those suites of papier mâché furniture which remain as impressive today as when they dazzled visitors at the great international exhibitions of the 19th century” Antiques Trade Gazette
As one of the few decorative arts about which little has been written, japanning is today fraught with misunderstandings. And yet, in its heyday, the japanning industry attracted important commissions from prestigious designers such as Robert Adam, and orders from fashionable society across Europe and beyond. This book is a long overdue history of the industry which centred on three towns in the English midlands: Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bilston. It is as much about the workers, their skills, and the factories and workshops in which they laboured, as it is about the goods they made. It tells of matters of taste and criticism, and of how an industry which continued to rely so heavily upon hand labour in the machine age reached its natural end in the 1880s with a few factories lingering into the late 1930s. Richly illustrated, it includes photographs of mostly marked, or well-documented, examples of japanned tin and papier mâché against which readers may compare – and perhaps identify – unmarked specimens. Japanned Papier Mâché and Tinware draws predominantly upon contemporary sources: printed, manuscript and typescript documents, and, for the period leading up to the closure of the last factories in the 1930s, the author was able to draw on verbal accounts of eyewitnesses. With a chapter on japanners in London, other European centres, and in the United States, together with a directory of japan artists and decorators, this closely researched and comprehensive book is the reference work for collectors, dealers and enthusiasts alike. Contents: From Imitation to Innovation; Enter the Dragon!; The Lion of the District; Japanning & Decorating; Not a Bed of Roses!; Clever Accidents?; Decline of the Midlands Japanning Industry; The Birmingham Japanners; The Wolverhampton Japanners; The Bilston Japanners; Japanners in London and Oxford; Products; Other Western Japanning Centres; Appendices.

The brothers Paul and John Nash, in their very different ways, were a major influence on twentieth century British design. Paul Nash (1889-1946) is now recognised as the most significant war artist of the last century; John Nash (1893-1977) as a plantsman artist. Both worked as designers and as tutors at the Royal College of Art, Paul encouraging a generation of designer artists that included Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Enid Marx. As a committee member of the Design and Industries Association and President of the newly formed Society of Industrial Artists (now the Chartered Society of Designers) Paul promoted design as no less an art form than the fine arts of painting and sculpture. His clients included London Transport, Shell and Curwen Press and publishers the Nonesuch and Golden Cockerel Presses. John became well known for his Edward Lear influenced humorous illustrations and his superb plant drawings and wood engravings that illustrate innumerable books and publications. Paul Nash and John Nash, Design features over 150 illustrations, including graphic design, textile design, ceramics and glass, many not reproduced before. With descriptions by Brian Webb and an introductory essay by Peyton Skipwith. The Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said: “A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb.”
Also available: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

A book that debunks the popular myth that William Wordsworth was, first and foremost, a poet of daffodils, Wordsworth’s Gardens and Flowers: The Spirit of Paradise provides a vivid account of Wordsworth as a gardening poet who not only wrote about gardens and flowers but also designed – and physically worked in – his gardens. Wordsworth’s Gardens and Flowers: The Spirit of Paradise is a book of two halves. The first section focuses on the gardens that Wordsworth made at Grasmere and Rydal in the English Lake District, and also in Leicestershire, at Coleorton. The gardens are explored via his poetry and prose and the journals of his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth. In the second half of the book, the reader learns more of Wordsworth’s use of flowers in his poetry, exploring the vital importance of British flowers and other ‘unassuming things’ to his work, as well as their wider cultural, religious and political meaning. Throughout, the engaging, accessible text is woven around illustrations that bring Wordsworth’s gardens and flowers to life, including rare botanical prints, many reproduced here for the first time in several decades. Contents: Part One: The Gardens and their Maker Part Two: Flowers and the Poetry A Note on the Botanical Plates List of Illustrations Acknowledgements

“Mr. Wolman’s view of the women as style icons comes into sharp focus thanks to a new coffee-table book, Groupies and Other Electric Ladies. It collects his published portraits along with outtakes, contact sheets, the original articles from the issue and new essays that put the subjects into a modern context. The thick paper stock and oversize format emphasizes Mr. Wolman’s view of the groupies as pioneers in hippie frippery.” New York Times Style section
“…style and fashion mattered greatly, were central to their presentation, and I became fascinated with them… I discovered what I believed was a subculture of chic and I thought it merited a story.” Baron Wolman The 1960s witnessed a huge cultural revolution. Music was at the heart of a new generation’s rallying cry for love, peace and harmony – from small clubs to giant festivals like Woodstock. With men predictably dominating as musicians and performers, the women and girls backstage started to explore their own forms of liberation and self-expression. They became better known as the Groupies – offering their allegiance to the music, and the artists who made it. On February 15, 1969 Rolling Stone magazine released a ‘Special Super-Duper Neat Issue’ called ‘THE GROUPIES and Other Girls’ featuring the work of their chief photographer, Baron Wolman. It would turn out to be a sensational milestone, making instant celebrities of the women featured. With this single issue, the Groupies had arrived. They emerged as extraordinary women, whose lifestyles divided opinion and remain controversial. Some became models, actresses, writers, artists and musicians – the GTOs, the original ‘Groupie band’ admired and encouraged by Frank Zappa, is featured here. Others fell into obscurity. Now, over 45 years later, ACC and Iconic Images are proud to publish the photographs of Baron Wolman in a single volume for the first time. Groupies and Other Electric Ladies features more than 150 images, including previously unseen out-takes and contact sheets, and comes complete with the original Rolling Stone text, as well as interviews with several of the women today.

Felicity Green brought a new, original voice and look to the fashion pages of the ’60s’ Daily Mirror. For the first time in newspaper history she created fashion pages designed to appeal to both sexes as the circulation soared to more than 5 million copies a day. Great pictures, great photographers, top designers, top models – Felicity made these Swinging ’60s fashion stories FUN! bringing the glamour and style of glossy magazines to the Mirror. These award-winning pages broke the fashion mould and captured the stellar time when London fashion conquered the world. Under Felicity Green’s by-line comes stories of the stars of the ’60s – they’re all talking in this original book: Mary Quant, Barbara Hulanicki, Vidal Sassoon, Twiggy, Terry O’Neill, and a sparkling foreword by Barbara Hulanicki, of Biba fame, tells the story of a fashion collaboration/friendship whose gingham dress made fashion history. The ‘Big Names’ from the ’60s are all here in this fun, entertaining and informative book which tells it how it really was; revel in close-up and very personal recollections. Sex Sense and Nonsense is an amusing, revealing look at the ’60s as you’ve never seen them before.

“Felicity Green was as much responsible for putting the swing into the ’60s as any of us including Mary Quant and me!” – Vidal Sassoon

“If it weren’t for Felicity and our gingham frock, my life would have been quite different.” – Barbara Hulanicki

“I plunged in to the London ’60s scene and broke all the rules – for me fashion is not frivolous, it’s part of being alive. Felicity at the Daily Mirror understood this – and understood me.” – Mary Quant

“Felicity was the journalist who first put ’60s fashions in newspapers. She recognised our scene and its potential to influence and change fashion and she put us all together, the models, the photographers with the clothes and hairstyles we all wanted to wear – and Felicity made it news.” – Terry O’Neill

“The Daily Mirror fashion pages looked like Felicity had kidnapped the Vogue art editor.” – Shirley Conran

“…a great resource for the art and textile enthusiast…” Classic Stitches, 2010. The most gifted textile designer of her generation, Shirley Craven won a string of awards during the 1960’s. This book celebrates her remarkable achievements at Hull Traders and documents her arresting hand screen-printed furnishing fabrics in full. Big bold abstracts were her speciality, striking in colour and breathtakingly original in style. A visionary small company with high ideals, Hull Traders made its mark initially with designs by artists Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigel Henderson and Ivon Hitchens. Under Craven’s direction Hull Traders issued a string of ground-breaking textiles during the 1960’s by forty artist-designers, recorded here in their entirety for the first time. Contributors included Althea McNish, John Drummond, Peter McCulloch, Doreen Dyall, Roger Limbrick, Cliff Holden, Richard Allen and Dorothy Carr. In 1966 Hull Traders branched out into furniture with the launch of Bernard Holdaway’s revolutionary tomotom range made of painted cardboard tubes – an icon of the Swinging Sixties, based entirely on circular forms, sold all over the world. Drawing on pioneering new research by leading post-war design historian Lesley Jackson, this book traces the fascinating, hitherto untold story of Hull Traders and its unique creative alliance with Shirley Craven and Bernard Holdaway. Featuring stunning new photography and rare archive photographs, it captures the explosion of creativity during the 1960’s and provides a visual feast of inspirational post-war pattern and form. Beautifully designed, Shirley Craven and Hull Traders is a companion volume to Jacqueline Groag ISBN: 9781851495900, Zandra Rhodes: Textiles Revolution, Medals, Wiggles and Pop 1961-1971, Artists’ Textiles: In America and Britain 1945-1976 ISBN: 9781851496297 and Pop! Design, Culture, Fashion 1955-1976 ISBN: 9781851496907, all recently published, to great acclaim, by Antique Collectors’ Club.