One sole truth about Edvard Munch’s art does not exist. The answers depend on the questions we pose. Twenty-two Munch experts have written 150 texts about well-known and lesser-known works from Munchmuseet’s collection. Through these multiple ways of seeing, Munch’s lifework emerges as infinite. And this book, as an exercise in the art of seeing. The book invites the reader to explore the world of Edvard Munch — his ideas, processes, and the profoundly human topics that occupied him and that still affect us today. Through a wide selection from the museum’s collection, you can experience the richness of Munch’s artistic career and his unrelenting drive to experiment and innovate.
“I have an old camera with which I have taken countless photographs of myself. It often produces astonishing effects”, Edvard Munch states in a 1930 interview. “Someday when I am old and have nothing better to do than work on an autobiography, all my photographic self-portraits will see the light of day again.” The autobiography was never realized, but the self-portraits have found their way to the pages of The Experimental Self. The Photography of Edvard Munch, which demonstrates the fundamentally experimental nature of the artist’s photographic practice. As a photographer, Munch embraced the freedom provided by the amateur position, and the unpredictable aspects of analogue photographic technology. By playfully approaching his own image in picture after picture, Munch extends his explorations of selfhood in other media through photography. The resulting photographs provide unique access to Munch’s radical artistic vision, which this book studies through eminent essays by Patricia G. Berman, Tom Gunning and MaryClaire Pappas.
Through various thematic perspectives and a range of media, this book will shed new light on the history of Surrealism. With the idea of the unconscious as a turning point, The Savage Eye traces the roots of Surrealism in Symbolism and shows how the two art movements both reflect each other and overlap. Some of the most significant artists in modern art meet here in the murky depths of the human mind, where logic and morality give way to dreams, disturbing impulses, and unbridled desire. In this illuminating book you will become familiar with two radical art movements that both explored the psyche with the aim of establishing a new concept of humanity. Through artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Paul Gauguin, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Lee Miller, Joan Miró, Odilon Redon, and Auguste Rodin we will take you on a journey through the limitless world of the unconscious.
This book aims to tell the story of social history through Money. Money and Art have shared a long history. Both words are metaphors derived from Latin terms used over 2,000 years ago. The word Money derives its modern meaning as the general term for all means of payment from its use as the word for coins in the pre-modern period. Particularly since the introduction of paper money, the word was applied to coins because of the name of the place where coins were made in ancient Rome, the temple of Juno Moneta (Juno the Warner), from this name the word moneta came to mean mint in Latin, and later the product of a mint, i.e. coins. The word Art acquired its modern usage, meaning works of art, both singularly and collectively, from the Latin ars meaning a skill, and it has so been used in English to describe any form of skill, but gradually from the nineteenth century, the word came to signify the product rather than the skill, particularly in relation to painting, graphic works and sculpture. This eclectic collection of stories brings together a multitude of perspectives through collections from the Ashmolean and around the world — from Art Nouveau bank notes and global portrayals of prosperity to activist Money Art. Deep dives into compelling stories reveal humor, hidden surprises and a tension between the power of money and the playfulness of art.
London is full of strange and beautiful sights. It is a place for traditions and rebels, for the establishment and every alternative subculture. This book celebrates the diversity of the city. It invites you to see Little Ben or the fake 10 Downing Street, and answers both conventional and unusual questions. What, apart from Rolling Scones, will you see at God’s Own Junkyard? Where does an old-school gentleman buy his wine and umbrellas? Why did Robbie Williams feud with his next-door neighbor? How has the city commemorated the Queen Mother and Princess Diana? In which park do 100-year-old naked ladies cavort on the banks of the Thames? Where did Lenin and Julian Assange campaign for their beliefs? And which bridge rolls itself up?
This unique guide explores the broad arc of terrain that flanks the city of Edinburgh – the three old counties of East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian, plus the district of Falkirk, ancient hub of Central Scotland. It’s a rolling landscape dotted with multifarious sites of every era, concealed amidst its characterful towns, picturesque waterways, urban sprawl and quiet green spaces. Brooding castles, palatial mansions, poignant monuments and sacred ancient landmarks stand cheek-by-jowl with stark relics of industrial heritage and world-beating wonders of modern engineering. You can trace the proud vestiges of Rome’s final frontier, marvel at the fruitiness of a giant Georgian folly, walk into the secret birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and roam the coast that inspired an early environmental pioneer.
Myth mingles with reality in the hidden histories of this realm. You’ll encounter royal A-listers Mary, Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie, plus a king from Arthurian legend, to say nothing of industrious goblins, enigmatic crusaders, tragic witches, elusive extra-terrestrials and a curious character covered in prickly plants.
Join Gillian Tait as she reveals 111 destinations with a difference around this diverse and fascinating region.
This beautifully appointed monograph features stunning full-color photographs and richly detailed plans and diagrams showcasing the work of Spanish architect Luis Vidal and his studio, Luis Vidal + Architects. Renowned writer and international architecture expert Philip Jodidio provides valuable insights into the work of Vidal and eloquently narrates the stories of 14 distinctive projects across a wide international region.
The projects in the stunning volume, ranging from private residences and urban buildings to hospitals, airports, and educational and cultural centers, have become a world reference in architecture, design, and construction. Among the selected works are the award-winning Terminal 2 (The Queen’s Terminal) at Heathrow Airport in London, Matta Sur Community Center in Santiago de Chile, and Loyola University Campus in Seville. The monograph also features an intensely personal endeavor for Vidal—a private residence that encapsulates much of the thinking that has made Vidal’s work so successful across the world.
Alan Glass has dedicated his entire career to building objects. He has no equal in the history of art, with the exception of Joseph Cornell. Characters such as Queen Elizabeth I and King Ludwig II of Bavaria, ice castles, the sea (navigation), the sky (astrology) and the universe appear in his object boxes. Equally important are his two-dimensional works, in which, with his exquisitely versatile drawing, he has made his fantastic visions come true.
This book is the result of a study carried out over two years by the prominent curator and lecturer Masayo Nonaka, a specialist in the subject of Mexican surrealism.
Portia Zvavahera is one of the outstanding artists of her generation. Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1985, she has developed a unique combination of print/painting techniques to register a private world of dreams, fantasies and figural constructions. She received her art education in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, and has become recognized in the past decade as one of the foremost representatives of African figuration, showcased at the Venice Biennale in 2022, and in a number of commercial gallery exhibitions in South Africa, the US and the UK. She has not yet had a solo show in a public museum in Europe.
This new publication accompanies a major exhibition, curated by Tamar Garb, which will include reproductions of brand new works created on the occasion of this exhibition alongside a selection of recent and older paintings which reveal the depth and richness of Zvavahera’s practice. The focus will be on the theme of dreams, fantasy and figuration, and large details will highlight Zvavahera’s innovative amalgamation of printmaking and painting techniques that build rich surfaces to create her private cosmology of creatures and contexts.
The book will feature a significant new essay from curator Tamar Garb and will center around an extensive conversation between Garb, Sinazo Chiya, Tandazani Dhlakama and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela discussing Zvavahera’s engagement with eros, intimacy and female-centered experience.
The book will open up how Zvavahera’s works emerge from dreams; being figurative without being illustrative, registering a world of feminine experience and fantasy.
The Battleship Yamato, of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was the most powerful warship of World War II and represented the climax, as it were, of the Japanese warrior traditions of the samurai – the ideals of honour, discipline and self-sacrifice that had immemorially ennobled the Japanese national consciousness. Stoically poised for battle in the spring of 1945 – when even Japan’s last desperate technique of arms, the kamikaze, was running short – Yamato arose as the last magnificent arrow in the imperial quiver of Emperor Hirohito.
Here, Jan Morris not only tells the dramatic story of the magnificent ship itself – from secret wartime launch to futile sacrifice at Okinawa – but, more fundamentally, interprets the ship as an allegorical figure of war itself, in its splendor and its squalor, its heroism and its waste. Drawing on rich naval history and rhapsodic metaphors from international music and art, Battleship Yamato is a work of grand ironic elegy.
“The short, illustrated book Morris has written about the Yamato is what she calls ‘a reverie’ on the varied emotions that war summons up…I think it’s safe to say that Morris has also written a reverie on accepting the inevitability of death… This book itself signals yet another end: Certainly, it will be one of the very last books written about World War II by an author who saw active service in that war. That sobering fact only adds to the elegiac resonance of this magnificent little book.” ― Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air.
Published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the sinking of Yamato (7 April 2025)
James VI & I, the only child of Mary, Queen of Scots, has often been overshadowed by the dramatic lives of his mother and son, Charles I. This book seeks to redress the balance by centering the first monarch to reign over both Scotland and England and uncovering the artistic treasures created during his extraordinary reign.
The cultural riches of James’s court are showcased, revealing his diverse roles as ruler, scholar, politician, father and patron of the arts. His court’s passion for jewelry and fine clothes is illustrated in the vivid portraits and miniatures by John de Critz and Nicholas Hilliard – just two of many artists and craftspeople who thrived in its artistic and intellectual climate.
Five richly illustrated chapters demonstrate James’s impact on early modern Britain, while reconsidering the reputation of a king traditionally presented as preferring hunting and drinking to the duties of daily governance. Packed with exquisite art works and sumptuous objects, this book brings James’s court vividly to life.
Blondie in Camera 1978 is richly illustrated with photographer Martyn Goddard’s most famous images of Blondie. Taken during their breakthrough year, these pictures have graced magazines, newspapers, promotional campaigns, posters and even the ‘Picture This’ single cover and the Best of Blondie album cover.
Blondie’s rise to the mainstream surface punctuated the late ’70s with a raft of unforgettable New Wave hits. The genre-mashing classic ‘Heart of Glass’ along with the likes of ‘Hanging on a Telephone’ and ‘Picture This’ were as zesty and fresh-faced as the young band members, who soon found superstardom as their singles landed and the strength of their attitude began to resonate. When Goddard traveled to New York in ’78 with an assignment to photograph lead-singer Debbie Harry, he couldn’t have imagined that Blondie’s songs and his images would soon become permanent fixtures on the cultural landscape.
This is the ultimate treasure trove for fans of one of the world’s biggest bands.