Ways of seeing by
Based on the BBC television series, John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a unique look at the way we view art, published as part of the Penguin on Design series in Penguin Modern Classics.'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.''But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.' John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented- 'This is an eye-opener in more ways than one- by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures.' By now he has.If you enjoyed Ways of Seeing, you might like Susan Sontag's On Photography, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
Defining Contemporary Art by
In the mid-1980s the sprouting of new movements that had driven modern art since the nineteenth century finally went dormant, sputtering out with a few last half-hearted labels ('pattern painting', 'neo-geo', 'commodity art'). But this was not the end of art history - far from it. In the years since, art's creative development has remained more vibrant than ever, resulting in a diversity of new forms that is truly staggering.
Defining Contemporary Artresponds to this unique landscape with an innovative approach to art history. Selected by the eight most prominent curators working today, all of whom have both witnessed and shaped this period, Defining Contemporary Arttoday tells the story of the 200 pivotal artworks of the past 25 years. With insightful texts and generous illustrations, it offers the most complete, accurate and easy-to-use guide to the history of contemporary art. A vital sourcebook for historians and art practitioners, it is also an accessible introduction for anyone eager to understand the art of our time.
Art & Today by
Targeting the same audience as Phaidon's highly successful and long-selling Art Todayby Edward Lucie-Smith, Art & Todaysurveys contemporary art from 1980 to today, discussing over 450 of the most important artists of the last 25 years. Each of the 16 chapters in Art & Todaytackles a major theme of contemporary art. This emphasis on broad, thematic relationships defies the narrow, now-tired classifications of medium, period, genre, or geographic region so often regurgitated in contemporary art surveys of this ilk. Instead, Art & Today posits fresh, thought-provoking juxtapositions of artists from different regions, periods and mediums. For instance, in the chapter "Art and the Body," one might find performance discussed alongside figurative painting, sculpture and photography alongside video, and North American artists alongside Asian artists. Internationally renowned art critic and scholar, Eleanor Heartney is respected for her clear language and pragmatic approach to contemporary art. Her straightforward, engaging descriptions and explanations will appeal to both experts and newcomers alike.
But Is It Art? by
From Andy Warhol's Brillo boxes to provocative dung-splattered madonnas, in today's art world many strange, even shocking, things are put on display. This often leads exasperated viewers to exclaim--is this really art?
In this invaluable primer on aesthetics, Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are so highly valued in art, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many engrossing examples. Writing clearly and perceptively, she explores the cultural meanings of art in different contexts, and highlights the continuities of tradition that stretch from modern, often sensational, works back to the ancient halls of the Parthenon, to the medieval cathedral of Chartres, and to African nkisi nkondi fetish statues. She explores the difficulties of interpretation, examines recent scientific research into the ways the brain perceives art, and looks to the still-emerging worlds of art on the web, video art, art museum CD-ROMS, and much more. In addition, Freeland guides us through the various theorists of art, from Aristotle and Kant to Baudrillard. Lastly, throughout this nuanced account of theories, artists, and works, Freeland provides us with a rich understanding of how cultural significance is captured in a physical medium, and why challenging our perceptions is, and always has been, central to the whole endeavor.
It is instructive to recall that Henri Matisse himself was originally derided as a "wild beast." To horrified critics, his bold colors and distorted forms were outrageous. A century later, what was once shocking is now considered beautiful. And that, writes Freeland, is art.
Ways of Looking by
Art has changed. Today's works of art may have no obvious focal point. Traditional artistic media no longer do what we expect of them. The styles and movements that characterized art production prior to the twenty-first century no longer exist. This book provides a straightforward guide to understanding contemporary art based on the concept of the tabula rasa - a clean slate and a fresh mind. Ossian Ward presents a six-step program that gives readers new ways of looking at some of the most challenging art being produced today. Since artists increasingly work across traditional media and genres, Ward has developed an alternative classification system for contemporary practice such as 'Art as Entertainment', 'Art as Confrontation', 'Art as Joke' -- categories that help to make sense of otherwise obscure-seeming works. There are also 20 'Spotlight' features which guide readers through encounters with key works. Ultimately, the message is that any encounter with a challenging work of contemporary art need not be intimidating or alienating but rather a dramatic, sensually rewarding, and thought-provoking experience.
Making Contemporary Art by
An innovative text that draws on the work of 40 contemporary artists to create a complex understanding of how to make and look at contemporary art. In six thematic sections and through a series of interviews with various artists, Weintraub explores the conceptual and practical concerns involved.
Painting Now by
Painting is a continually expanding and evolving medium. The radical changes that have taken place since the 1960s and 1970s--the period that saw the shift from a modernist to a postmodernist visual language--have led to its reinvigoration as a practice, lending it an energy and diversity that persists today.In Painting Now, renowned critic and art historian Suzanne Hudson offers an intelligent and original survey of contemporary painting--a critical snapshot that brings together more than 200 artists from around the world whose work is defining the ideas and aesthetics that characterize the painting of our time. Hudson's rigorous inquiry takes shape through the analysis of a range of internationally renowned painters, alongside reproductions of their key works to illustrate the concepts being discussed. These luminaries include Franz Ackermann, Micha#65533;l Borremans, Chuck Close, Angela de la Cruz, Subodh Gupta, Julie Mehretu, Vik Muniz, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Peyton, Wilhelm Sasnal, Luc Tuymans, Zhang Xiaogang, and many others.Organized into six thematic chapters exploring aspects of contemporary painting such as appropriation, attitude, production and distribution, the body, painting about painting, and introducing additional media into painting, this is an essential volume for art history enthusiasts, critics, and practitioners.
Painting by
This is a collection of critical and artists' writings defining the meanings of painting since its post-conceptual revival in the early 1980s.
Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective by
Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective is a solid overview of current work in this exciting area, taking into account the history and the different techniques available for artists working today. Using the work of contemporary artists, Printmaking tells the story of the progression of this art form and highlights the most important technological advances and influential artists. Printmaking is split into sections including: Reworking Traditions; Painterly Approaches; The Hybrid Print; Political Imperatives; The Sculptor's Print; Installation and Expanded Print; and New Technology. Each section discusses the origin of print styles, early artists, and contemporary artists working with print today. Exploring contemporary approaches tot his ever-growing medium; Printmaking discusses the work of some of the most exciting artists working in the field today. Artists featured include David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Damien Hirst, Nanvy Spero, Roni Horn, Masami Teraoka, Kara Walker, Oscar Munos, Willie Cole, Banksy and the Brooklyn-based Faile Collective. The work of influential artists in the field throughout history is also included, such as Rembrandt, Goya, Degas, Picasso, Paula Rego, and George Baselitz, to show the effect their work has had on a younger generation of artists. AUTHOR: Paul Coldwell is an artist, curator and Professor of Fine Art at the University of the Arts, London. His own practice includes prints, book works, sculptures and installations and he has exhibited widely with solo shows at The Eagle Gallery, Freud Museum, Arthouse Dublin, The London Print Studio, and Queens Gallery, Delhi. He has published writings on a number of printmakers including, Morandi, Ardizzone and Rego, with whom he worked with on all her etchings between 1986- 2005 including the Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan, Pendle Witches, and the Children's Crusade.
Printmaking Bible by
Perennially popular, printmaking is enjoying a contemporary resurgencebut no comprehensive up-to-date manual on the subject exists. At over 400 pages and packed with 1,000 full-color photos and illustrations,The Printmaking Bible is the definitive resource to the ins-and-outs of every variety of serious printmaking technique practiced today.In-depth instructions are accompanied by profiles that show how working artists create their prints. Historical information, troubleshooting tips, and an extensive resource section provide more invaluable tools. Perfect for students, artists, print aficionados, and collectors, this is truly the ultimate volume for anyone involved in this creative and influential art form.
The contemporary printmaker : intaglio-type & acrylic resist etching by
This book represents Keith Howard's latest research into non-toxic printmaking or contemporary printmaking. It has 265 pages with over 500 full-color illustrations. There is a quick-look section to most chapters with a troubleshooting guide at the end of each chapter. This is the contemporary printmaking "bible."
Sculpture Today by
Contemporary sculpture is a wide-ranging and fascinating subject, surprisingly unrepresented in the current marketplace; this richly illustrated book, which follows the format of Phaidon Press's successful Art Today and Architecture Today, seeks to change this. In the great sea-change marking the end of Modernism - a general set of views and assumptions about art which reigned during the first half of the 20th century - critical opinion began to shift from painting to sculpture. Sculpture was felt to be more socially engaging because it occupied the actual space of the body rather than creating an illusionistic realm using perspective and other techniques. In the past twenty-five years sculpture has become a capacious and enormously inventive category that includes an astonishing range of phenomena. These encompass installations, environments, staged video displays and even choreographed humans. This sheer array of materials, forms and techniques that has been - and is still being - presented under the term of 'sculpture' in the 21st century indicates that the discipline is not an immutable art form with fixed boundaries and commandments, but rather that it can expand its terms of reference with unflagging energy, and is apparently inexhaustible. Sculpture Today is written in a scholarly yet accessible style, and offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of its subject, celebrating both the vitality and sheer diversity of sculpture during the last two and a half decades.
The Elements of Sculpture by
The Elements of Sculptureis the essential viewer's guide to experiencing sculpture. Richly illustrated with photographs of artworks both contemporary and classical and written by a sculptor and teacher with lifelong experience, it arms the reader with the tools and vocabulary with which to view a vast range of sculptures. Insightful and thought-provoking, it is accessible to the widest audience; as a primer for both students and general readers, it provides a new way of looking at, experiencing and discussing the art of crafting in three dimensions. Compelling and jargon-free, The Elements of Sculpturediscovers and isolates the attributes - from the most physical to the most ephemeral - that make up an essential three-dimensional visual language; the very elements that form the tools sculptors use to create their art- Material, Place, Surface, Edge, Texture, Colour, Scale, Mass, Centre of Gravity, Volume, Space, Movement, Light and Memory. By teaching us how to look at and experience sculpture in the same way that sculptors think about sculpture, Herbert George provides us with the tools for understanding and appreciating the three-dimensional object, demonstrating how we can begin to communicate using the language of sculpture.
Unmonumental by
Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century is a groundbreaking thematic survey of sculptural work by thirty of today's leading artists. The book will be published in conjunction with the inaugural exhibition of the New Museum of Contemporary Art's landmark new building on the Bowery in New York.
Camera Lucida by
A graceful, contemplative volume,Camera Lucidawas first published in 1979. Commenting on artists such as Avedon, Clifford, Mapplethorpe, and Nadar, Roland Barthes presents photography as being outside the codes of language or culture, acting on the body as much as on the mind, and rendering death and loss more acutely than any other medium. This groundbreaking approach establishedCamera Lucidaas one of the most important books of theory on the subject, along with Susan Sontag'sOn Photography.
Art and Photography by
The first major survey of photography's place in recent art history, now available in paperback
The Language of New Media by
A stimulating, eclectic accountof new media that finds its origins in old media, particularly the cinema. In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media. He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media's reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface and database. Manovich uses concepts from film theory, art history, literary theory, and computer science and also develops new theoretical constructs, such as cultural interface, spatial montage, and cinegratography. The theory and history of cinema play a particularly important role in the book. Among other topics, Manovich discusses parallels between the histories of cinema and of new media, digital cinema, screen and montage in cinema and in new media, and historical ties between avant-garde film and new media.
The Wretched of the Screen by
In Hito Steyerl's writing we begin to see how, even if the hopes and desires for coherent collective political projects have been displaced onto images and screens, it is precisely here that we must look frankly at the technology that seals them in. The Wretched of the Screen collects a number of Steyerl's landmark essays from recent years in which she has steadily developed her very own politics of the image. Twisting the politics of representation around the representation of politics, these essays uncover a rich trove of information in the formal shifts and aberrant distortions of accelerated capitalism, of the art system as a vast mine of labor extraction and passionate commitment, of occupation and internship, of structural and literal violence, enchantment and fun, of hysterical, uncontrollable flight through the wreckage of postcolonial and modernist discourses and their unanticipated openings.
e-flux journal Series edited by Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Anton Vidokle
