“Prepare to be inspired at National Galleries Scotland: Modern One, as Everlyn Nicodemus opens her first retrospective this Saturday” — The NEN
“Experience Everlyn’s joyful, defiant and searingly honest artworks, with over 80 drawings, collages, paintings and textiles from over 40 years of her career, from 1980 through to the present day.” — Art Daily
This is the first major publication on the artist Everlyn Nicodemus and accompanies the first ever retrospective of her 40-year career. It offers a fascinating introduction to her life, career and art.
This book introduces readers to Nicodemus’s practice – from the very first work she painted to newly commissioned oil paintings. Many of Nicodemus’s drawings, collages, paintings and textiles are published here for the first time.
Nicodemus engages with complex subject matters, unflinchingly addressing human suffering and societal responsibility. While her works convey and process traumatic experiences, they are ultimately hopeful, focusing on healing and the power of creativity. This publication will reveal the scope and ambition of this astonishing artist’s practice.
Expert contributors offer new insights into Nicodemus’s practice, including a new interview with the artist. Exhibition curator Stephanie Straine explains and contextualizes the rich pages of artworks, drawing on extensive primary research with the artist and her archives.
A unique insight into the ways in which one of today’s leading artists is inspired by great works of the past. In 16 emphatically modern new paintings, renowned artist, Alison Watt, responds to the remarkable delicacy of the female portraits by eighteenth-century Scottish portraitist, Allan Ramsay. Watt’s new works are particularly inspired by Ramsay’s much-loved portrait of his wife, along with less familiar portraits and drawings. Watt shines a light on enigmatic details in Ramsay’s work and has created paintings which hover between the genres of still life and portraiture. In conversation with curator Julie Lawson, Watt discusses how painters look at paintings, explains why Ramsay inspired her, and provides unique insight into her own creative process. Andrew O’Hagan responds to Watt’s paintings with a new work of short fiction and art historian Tom Normand’s commentary explores further layers of depth to our understanding of both artists.
Kengo Kuma is an acclaimed Japanese architect whose work masterfully engages architectural experimentation, traditional Japanese design, and 21st-century technology. This results in highly advanced yet beautifully simple, gentle, human-scaled buildings.
Kengo Kuma: Substance, the follow up to Topography (2021), explores the work of Kengo Kuma and Associates through six materials: wood, fabric, metal, bamboo, stone, and paper. The beautifully illustrated volume presents more than 30 projects, from captivating wood pavilions, ethereal textile installations, and sculptural woven structures to abstract stone fountains, aluminum chain screens, and monumental wood-and-steel bridges.
The featured projects are from around the world and range in typology and scale. Highlights include the Taoist temple in Shinpu; Kusugibashi bridge in Yamaguchi; Ephemeral Tent in Shanghai; Namako pavilion for Design Canberra Festival; a bamboo tea house in China; and the Wakuni Shoten tobacco store in Tokyo; among many others. Each project is illustrated with exquisite imagery that showcases how Kuma’s architectural designs are conceived and crafted to reveal the inherent qualities of the materials.
As Kuma continues to forge a new design language, he offers readers insight into how he has engaged with different materials to further progress his ideas and advance the world of architecture and design.
Inspired by poets, draftsmen and printmakers, painters also discovered Haarlem and its beautiful surroundings as rewarding subjects for their work. Jacob van Ruisdael and Gerrit Berckheyde both repeatedly pictured the city – the former with his ‘Haerlempjes’, where heavy cloudy skies dominate the landscape and the unmistakable St Bavo’s Church stands on the horizon. Berckheyde is known for his atmospheric cityscapes: the Grote Markt, with St Bavo’s as the focal point, the Weigh House on the River Spaarne and the city gates.
Throughout its century of existence, every moment of Le Mans has been captured in countless photographs. From black & white to color, these particularly vivid images bring to life a whole world: that of the cars, naturally, but also of the many human players – drivers, engineers, mechanics – and the public, always numerous and varied.
The authors summarize the moments and actions of the key characters, identifying five major periods:
1923-1929: The time of the pioneers
1930-1967: Reconstruction and globalization
1968-1981: In search of the right solution
1982-1999: The 21st century in sight
2000-2022: A Modern Race
Text in English and French.
From wild parrots in the streets of Tokyo to prize pigeons outside New York, this book brings together the world’s best contemporary photography of birds and asks us to look anew at these mysterious winged creatures in all their complexity and majesty.
Featured photographers: Frankie Alduino, Barbara Bosworth, Xavi Bou, Giacomo Brunelli, Robert Clark, Tim Flach, Andrew Garn, Mark Harvey, Leila Jeffreys, Simen Johan, Tracy Johnson, Katerina Kaloudi, Sanna Kannisto, Tom Leighton, Neeta Madahar, Dillon Marsh, Joseph McGlennon, Yoshinori Mizutani, Yola Monakhov, Carla Rhodes, Pentti Sammallahti, Joel Sartore, Aniruddha Satam, Søren Solkær, Tamara Staples, Luke Stephenson, Julia Tatarchenko and Janice Tieken.
In an age of soaring uncertainty, small moments of connection – with ourselves and our planet – matter more than ever before. The 200 intimate portraits in this volume tell stories of courage, hardship and hope, across continents and through generations.
The photographs of these journeys form one of the most extensive records of any region taken in the 19th century. The range, depth and aesthetic quality of John Thomson’s photographic vision mark him out as one of the most important travel photographers.
Thomson arrived in Siam in 1865 and with the help of the British Consul in Bangkok, he was able to gain an audience with King Mongkut who granted him permission to take some formal portraits of the King, his royal family and chief ministers, as well as recording important ceremonies and traveling to Ayutthaya, Petchaburi and the surrounding countryside. Staying in Bangkok for several months he photographed many aspects of the city, river scenes, its surrounding countryside and people, before journeying to Cambodia and the amazing Angkor Wat ruins. After an arduous and dangerous journey, Thomson became the first photographer to document Angkor Wat before returning to London.
Between 1868-1872 Thomson turned his attention to China, making extensive trips to Guangdon, Fujian, Beijing and China’s north-east traveling down the Yangtze river and covering nearly 5,000 miles.
In China, Thomson’s photographic skills reached their zenith and his portraits of women are particularly remarkable.
His collection of over 600 glass negatives form a unique archive of images, which are today housed in the Wellcome Library, London.
Although one of the world’s smallest countries, Qatar punches well above its weight in terms of art and culture. It is home to innovative and striking pieces of public art as well as art-filled museums designed by world-famous architects. This is all part of a far-reaching plan to focus on becoming a culture-based, rather than carbon-based, economy – a plan which Sheikha Mayassa has spearheaded on every level. It is this which makes The Power of Culture so informative and readable. Sheikha Mayassa’s personality shines through every page, whether discussing the delights to be found in museums and galleries, or commenting on her favorite place to see wild life and where to find the best abayas. Part easy-to-read guide and part memoir, The Power of Culture offers a completely original insight into the Qatar of today, enhanced with in-depth interviews by Sheikha Mayassa with some of the leading architects and artists who have contributed to its success.
Text in English, Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish.
In line with the works on decorators of the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, this book plunges us into the world of ’80s and ’90s. These have witnessed unprecedented experiments in the world of design and architecture. Composed of a rich introduction which gives a synoptic vision and 38 monographs that describe its many faces, this book makes an exceptionally creative period, and reveals through an abundant iconography, often unpublished, its formidable aesthetic richness.
A new generation of designers stands out, among them Shiro Kuramata, Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, Bob Wilson, Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti. All regenerate creation by refusing the elitism of their predecessors and by favoring the use of new materials. Some turn to recovery, such as the Creative Salvage group, and offer inventive and provocative furniture thanks to welding and assembly. Others, gathered in Italy around Ettore Sottsass and Memphis, combine unexpected colors and patterns to the playful use of plastic laminate. Sliding until the end of the ’90s, the achievements presented in this book mark the desire for a dialog between artistic references with a new relationship to the industrial aspect, at the dawn of the 21st century and its technological innovations.
Text in English and French.
The Book of Norman: Norman Sunshine / A Life in Art, brings together more than seven decades of the American artist Norman Sunshine’s painting, sculpture, pencil, charcoal, and digital work, all deftly interwoven into his remarkable life story. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Sunshine began as an illustrator for the entertainment industry and the New York Times, eventually moving into advertising, where he authored some of the most recognizable campaigns of the 1970s. He quickly drew acclaim as a painter of southern California’s soft geometry and quiet loneliness. After moving back to the East Coast, his practice expanded: sometimes through distinctively experimental, Cezanne-like still-lifes, sometimes capturing the austerity of the New England winter, but always developing a visual language equally attuned to the psychological and physical spaces he inhabited.
The Book of Norman is both a memoir of the social and artistic worlds of post-war America and a deep reflection on a life devoted to making art. The art critic Donald Kuspit said of Sunshine’s work that it is, “a classical example of dynamic equilibrium.” That statement is also true of the artist himself.
“David Brafman, just like the alchemists did, mixes ingredients to make gold.” — The New Scientist
Alchemists are notorious for attempting to synthesize gold. Their goals, however, were far more ambitious: to transform and bend nature to the will of an industrious human imagination. For scientists, philosophers, and artists alike, alchemy seemed to hold the key to unlocking the secrets of creation. Alchemists’ efforts to discover the way the world is made have had an enduring impact on global artistic practice and expression.
Brafman’s book is the first to explore how the art of alchemy globally transformed human creative culture from the ancient world to the modern scientific age, and displays the ways its legacy still permeates the world we make today.
Documenting a contemporary reinterpretation of a classical French château by Landry Design Group with interiors by Philip Nimmo and Company, Creating A Livable Work of Art is a captivating case study of how a great home is conceived, designed, and built. The distinguished architecture writer Michael Webb traces the evolution of the design that marries period style with contemporary living patterns to create a unique residence that is both of its time and timeless. Accompanied by gorgeous photography by leading architectural photographer Manolo Langis.
The Meaning of the Earth offers a retrospective on the lives and work of the relentlessly controversial artists, placing them within the context of twentieth century British culture. Wolf Jahn tells the story of how Gilbert & George found their identity in opposition to pervasive ideas around social conformity and religion after meeting in 1967.
The artists staged an internal revolution, mining their psyches to create visionary and unwaveringly modern art. The ‘two people but one artist’ ask the questions that gnaw at us all: ‘Where do we come from?’, ‘Who are we?’ and ‘Where are we going?’ The book meditates on the artists’ role in this century, connecting their beginnings as Living Sculptures to their pictorial work of today.
The Meaning of the Earth is a continuation of Jahn’s 1989 work, The Art of Gilbert & George. The author writes a playful philosophical interrogation of Gilbert & George’s work that truly grasps its cosmic scale.
Women and men – strong, proud, tragic or beautiful – from the heyday (1765–1865) of Japanese printmaking are this book’s subject. It seeks to dig below the surface of the prints to describe the often subtle iconography employed in these masterful creations by the most famous artists of their time.
It begins with Suzuki Harunobu’s subdued and introverted scenes of women seated on verandas. The book then moves on to the spectacular ‘big face’ (okubi-e) portraits of prostitutes and Kabuki actors by artists like Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Sharaku and Utagawa Kunimasa.
Frail ‘streetwalkers’, forced by circumstance into the lowest ranks of prostitution, are transformed into elegant beauties, obscuring their tragic existence. The spectacle of heroes from Japan’s rich mythological and pseudo-historical past crowd the printed sheet. Stern-faced actors drawn by the confident hands of Utagawa Toyokuni and his pupil Kunisada demonstrate the economy of line and powerful expression of the woodblock medium.
Each print is explored in the finest detail in order to explain the riddles of Ukiyo-e: the intriguing and captivating mode of visual expression that would have such a profound influence on Western art.
“The quality of the reprint is nearly perfect, with a good selection of papers for the three sequential parts of the book: the texts, the drawings, and the black-and-white photographs. Text and drawings are on matte heavyweight pages, while the photos are on glossy paper. The inks make everything read well; in particular, the drawing reproductions are exquisite.” — Archidose
Edwin Lutyens, one of the most famous architectural names of the 20th century, died in 1944. As a memorial, three large volumes of his drawings and photographs were commissioned from the thousands found in his office, and were published by Country Life.
All three volumes will be republished in 2023. The first volume contains his own plans, elevations and copious details of the finest examples of his domestic buildings, on which his huge reputation principally rests. The book embodies the quintessence of the man and his work; the variety of style and design seen in the houses brings together in one volume the many strands of Lutyen’s fertile mind. Two further volumes will include his corporate and public buildings.
The genius of Lutyens is now universally recognized. In the work featured in this book, we can now see not just the professionalism of a great architect, but also the loving care with which he set down the most minute detail, with the result that this is one of the few books in existence that can be used to provide working drawings.
Climate change is here. We are in the middle of it and cannot turn a deaf ear to the alarm bells that are sounding ever more compellingly. The impact of unbridled greenhouse gas emissions is incontrovertibly proven and clearly measurable: the warming of the atmosphere and oceans, a change in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, a change in storm activity, a faster acidification of the oceans… There is no more time to close our eyes and think the problem away. No, if we don’t want to burden future generations with insurmountable problems, we need to take action… and right away.
Cathy Macharis, professor of Sustainable Mobility and Logistics at the VUB, puts her finger on the problem and translates meeting the climate goals – which for greenhouse gas emissions implies a reduction by a factor of 8 – into a concrete and sustainable mobility plan to which everyone can and will have to do their bit. The challenge is huge, and despite the fact that technology can help us do this, technology alone cannot solve the problem. In 8 A’s a (Awareness, Avoidance, Act and Shift, Anticipation, Acceleration, Actor involvement, Alteration and All in love!), a plan of action is comprehensively proposed, starting with a change in mentality. This discourse advocates urgent but achievable change, without finger-pointing, hysteria or the pessimism so often inherent in the climate debate.
Never reprinted since their first, posthumous appearance in 1935, these woodcuts were the only printed versions of his work to receive Rodin’s full approval. Mostly self-educated, Rodin was a passionate re-reader of his favorite books, and Ovid’s Love Elegies occupied a special place in his imagination. These woodcut illustrations were taken from the astonishingly free and improvisatory life drawings he made in his later years. For many people these are the most entrancing manifestation of his genius. Privately published in 1939 in a very strictly limited edition, these 31 beautiful images are very rarely seen. This edition marries Rodin’s illustrations to Christopher Marlowe’s glittering translation, which was ceremonially burnt by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1599.
Effie Gray was an innocent victim of a male-dominated society, repressed and mistreated. Or was she? John Ruskin, the greatest art critic and social reformer of his time, was a callous misogynist and upholder of the patriarchy. Or was he? John Everett Millais, boy genius, rescued the heroine from the tyrannical clutches of the husband who left his wedding unconsummated for six years. Or did he? What really happened in the most scandalous love triangle of the 19th century? Was it all about impotence and pubic hair? Or was it about money, power and freedom? If so, whose? And what possibilities were there for these young people caught in a world racked by social, financial and political turmoil? The accepted story of the Ruskin marriage has never lost its fascination. History books, novels, television series, operas and now a star-filled film by Emma Thompson have all followed this standard line. It seems to offer an easy take on the Victorians and how we have moved on. But the story isn’t true.
In Marriage of Inconvenience Robert Brownell uses extensive documentary evidence – much of it never seen before, and much of it hitherto suppressed – to reveal a story no less fascinating and human, no less illuminating about the Victorians and far more instructive about our own times, than the myths that have grown up about the most notorious marriage of the 19th century.
“A page turner, even for those familiar with the subject…The surprising truth that emerges is no less human, and no less revealing about the Victorians than the myths; on the contrary it gives a far more compelling insight into what relationships, family and money really mean.” — Country Life
“Ruskin’s marriage was doomed from the start, but not for the reason most people think, argues this well-researched book.” — The Times
Effie Gray was an innocent victim of a male-dominated society, repressed and mistreated. Or was she? John Ruskin, the greatest art critic and social reformer of his time, was a callous misogynist and upholder of the patriarchy. Or was he? John Everett Millais, boy genius, rescued the heroine from the tyrannical clutches of the husband who left his wedding unconsummated for six years. Or did he? What really happened in the most scandalous love triangle of the 19th century? Was it all about impotence and pubic hair? Or was it about money, power and freedom? If so, whose? And what possibilities were there for these young people caught in a world racked by social, financial and political turmoil? The accepted story of the Ruskin marriage has never lost its fascination. History books, novels, television series, operas and now a star-filled film by Emma Thompson (to be released in 2013) have all followed this standard line. It seems to offer an easy take on the Victorians and how we have moved on. But the story isn’t true.
In Marriage of Inconvenience Robert Brownell uses extensive documentary evidence – much of it never seen before, and much of it hitherto suppressed – to reveal a story no less fascinating and human, no less illuminating about the Victorians and far more instructive about our own times, than the myths that have grown up about the most notorious marriage of the 19th century.
” … The author’s personal, beautiful, and discursive style will appeal to enthusiasts of art and English literature.” Library Journal
One of the greatest literary artists in history, Ford Madox Ford’s childhood is brought to life in this collection of anecdotes from his many memoirs. Ford Madox Ford, best known today for Parade’s End and The Good Soldier, was also a very fine memoirist. The grandson of Ford Madox Brown, he grew up surrounded by all the great figures of Victorian artistic life, whom he saw with the unflinching eye of a child. This collection brings together some of his most evocative, witty, and tender memories of an extraordinary youth. There are rich anecdotes about the Rossettis, Brown, Morris, Burne Jones, Ruskin, Oscar Wilde, Leighton, Swinburne, the accomplished con-man Charles Augustus Howell, and many of the minor but no less vivid characters that made up the bohemian life of London in the second half of the 19th century. Ford’s elegiac but always penetrating prose is a constant delight, and his comic timing invariably immaculate. Selected from Ford’s many volumes of memoirs (all now out of print), this is a superb and very funny introduction to one of the great periods of English art and poetry by a great writer at the very heart of all that was old and all that was new.
The last work of Burne-Jones: a series of woodcut illustrations to the first chapters of Genesis, making a perfect epitome of his art. Reprinted from the original edition of 1902.
In 1975 Abram Games, one of Britain’s greatest graphic designers, was commissioned to make a fund-raising poster for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His brilliant solution was to become iconic: the face of Shakespeare built up from the titles of all the plays as they appear in the First Folio.
The poster has been seen all over the world; but Abram Games intended much more. After his death, his daughter Naomi discovered a mock up he had made of a flick book. As the reader flicked the pages, Games planned to make Shakespeare’s face gradually emerge.
Now at last Games’ original project is coming to life. All 37 plays are included, in the order they are printed in the First Folio of 1623, ending with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, added to the collection in the Third Folio of 1664. At the end, the playwright makes a graceful exit, marked by the poems and the lost or doubtful plays. The book is completed with some favorite quotations, and the date of each work. Naomi Games has written a brief introduction about the history of Games’ image.
Ruskin is one of the most influential and exhilarating writers in English. Art critic, architectural visionary, social reformer, climate warner and incomparable teacher; Ruskin’s words not only transformed Victorian England but speak to us with increasing urgency today. This, the first general introduction to Ruskin for many years, places him in the social, economic and aesthetic world of Victorian Britain that he transformed – and shows how this transformation has much to teach us today. The extensive illustrations range from private notes and lecture diagrams to presentation drawings, including some of the most beautiful images of the 19th century and many never before published. Published in association with the Ruskin Foundation.