The Arts: Treatments & subjects Books

A richly illustrated exploration of Mina Loy's art and writingsMina Loy (18821966) was one of the most iconoclastic figures in modernism. A groundbreaking poet, she also left an indelible mark in painting, drawing, prose, art criticism, and fashion. Mina...

How California's counterculture of the 1960s to 1980s profoundly shaped-and was shaped by-West Coast artistsThe 1960s exert a special fascination in modern art. But most accounts miss the defining impact of the period's youth culture, largely incubated...

In this provocative new account, David Joselit shows how art from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries began to function as a commodity, while the qualities of the artist, nation, or period themselves became valuable properties. Joselit explores...

A diverse set of contributions to the expanding field of ecocritical studiesSeeking a broad reexamination of visual culture through the lenses of ecocriticism, environmental justice, and animal studies, Picture Ecology offers a diverse range of art...

A marvellously illustrated A-to-Z compendium of bird names from around the globe.The Bird Name Book is an alphabetical reference book on the origins and meanings of common group bird names, from 'accentor' to...

A powerful photographic survey of the impact of irrigation systems on the landscape of the United StatesIn The One Hundred Circle Farm, renowned photographer Emmet Gowin (b. 1941) presents stunning aerial images of center-pivot irrigation systems in the...

A unique collection of brilliant quotations from the legendary Pop artistOne of the most influential artists of his time and ours, Andy Warhol is nearly as renowned for what he said as for what he did. Indeed, he is so quotable that things he never said...

For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa's Struggle for Its Art, Bndicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important...

The extraordinary life story of the celebrated artist and writer, as told through four decades of intimate letters to her beloved motherBarbara Chase-Riboud has led a remarkable life. After graduating from Yale's School of Design and Architecture, she...

Featuring never-before-seen drawings by the renowned contemporary artist, a beautiful facsimile edition that reveals the working process of an extraordinary creative mindSketchbook reproduces original working drawings and sketches by the contemporary...

A revelatory history of the first artist collective in the United States and its effort to reshape nineteenth-century art, culture, and politicsThe American Pre-Raphaelites founded a uniquely interdisciplinary movement composed of politically radical...

Celebrated artist Keith Haring (19581990) has been embraced by popular culture for his signature bold graphic line drawings of figures and forms. Like other graffiti artists in the 1980s, Haring found an empty canvas in the advertising panels scattered...

How an ingenious printmaking technique became a cross-cultural phenomenon in Enlightenment EuropeDriven by a growing interest in collecting and multiplying drawings, artists and amateurs in the eighteenth century sought a new technique capable of...

A new examination of the history of ceramic art, spanning ancient to modern times, emphasizing its traditions, materials, and methods of making.Concise but comprehensive, Ceramic Art brings together the voices of art historians, conservators, and artists...

A comprehensive photographic guide to the gull species of the Western PalearcticGulls occupy a particularly important place in the world of birds. But because they are notoriously difficult to identify, they have been relatively neglected in the...

What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book - against a background of today's 'sculpture wars' - Mary Beard tells the story of how...

One of the most groundbreaking artists to emerge in American art in the 1960s, Hannah Wilke consistently challenged the prevailing narratives of women's bodies and their representation throughout her career, until her untimely death in 1993. Wilke...

A collection of fascinating quotations from the legendary artist and graffiti pioneer Futura is a living legend - a world-renowned painter, designer, and photographer who was a pioneer of graffiti art and New York City's 'subway school.' His...

The work of renowned contemporary artist Daniel Arsham blurs the lines between art, architecture, archeology, and design. In his distinctive style, he takes ancient art works and objects from twentieth- century pop culture and casts sculptures of them in...

Among nature's most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of...

Abloh-isms is a collection of essential quotations from American fashion designer, DJ, and stylist Virgil Abloh, who has established himself as a major creative figure in the worlds of pop culture and art. Abloh began his career as Kanye West's...

The first comprehensive account of how and why architects learned to communicate through colour.Architectural draw traces the use of colour in European architectural drawings and prints, revealing how this phenomenon reflected the professional anxieties...

A brief guide to the real science of interstellar travel.With known exoplanets now numbering in the thousands and initiatives like 100 Year Starship and Breakthrough Starshot advancing the idea of interstellar travel, the age-old dream of venturing forth...

Eating and drinking can be aesthetic experiences as well as sensory ones. The Hungry Eye takes readers from antiquity to the Renaissance to explore the central role of food and drink in literature, art, philosophy, religion, and statecraft.In this...

Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and...

Anchorage Press' Top 10 for 2020 Keith Haring remains one of the most important and celebrated artists of his generation and beyond. Through his signature bold graphic line drawings of figures and forms dancing and grooving, Haring's...

The first investigation of how race and gender shaped the presentation and marketing of Modernist decor in postwar America.In the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless...

Contemporary artist Roni Horn first visited Iceland in 1975 at the age of nineteen, and since then, the island's treeless expanse has had an enduring hold on Horn's creative work. Through a series of remarkable and poetic reflections, vignettes,...

Mashable's 20 Books from 2020 That Make Great GiftsIn the course of making Human Flow, his epic feature documentary about the global refugee crisis, the artist Ai Weiwei and his collaborators interviewed more than 600 refugees, aid workers,...

The legendary splendor of Genoese baroque artGenoa completed its transformation from a faded maritime power into a thriving banking center for Europe in the seventeenth century. The wealth accumulated by its leading families spurred investment in the...

The first major history of the bravura movement in European paintingThe painterly style known as bravura emerged in sixteenth-century Venice and spread throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. While earlier artistic movements presented a...

A richly illustrated celebration of the paintings of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle ObamaFrom the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the...

The last three decades have seen a massive expansion of China's visual culture industries, from architecture and graphic design to fine art and fashion. New ideologies of creativity and creative practices have reshaped the training of a new generation of...

Antiques & Arts Weekly Holiday Books Round-up 2020 How artists created an aesthetic of 'positive barbarism' in a world devastated by World War II, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb.In Brutal Aesthetics, leading art historian and...

The first book to put the sacred and sensuous bronze statues from India's Chola dynasty in social context From the ninth through the thirteenth century, the Chola dynasty of southern India produced thousands of statues of Hindu deities, whose...

As Featured on Wall Street Journal's Holiday Books Round-up Nature The enduring influence of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt on American art, culture, and politics.Alexander von Humboldt (17691859) was one of the most influential...

A photographic study of the land that served as the main testing site for American nuclear devices for four decadesMore nuclear bombs have been detonated in America than in any other country in the world. Between 1951 and 1992, the Nevada National...

The untold story of Michelangelo's final decades-and his transformation into one of the greatest architects of the Italian RenaissanceAs he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were...

A meditation on how environmental change and the passage of time transform the meaning of site-specific art.In the decades after World War II, artists and designers of the land art movement used the natural landscape to create monumental site-specific...

How Lewis Carroll's photographs of children gave visual form to evolving ideas about childhood in the Victorian eraLewis Carroll began photographing children in the mid-nineteenth century, at a time when the young medium of photography was opening up new...

A pathbreaking history of art that uses digital research and economic tools to reveal enduring inequities in the formation of the art historical canon. Painting by Numbers presents a groundbreaking blend of art historical and social scientific methods to...

The first major English-language biography of Francisco Goya y Lucientes, who ushered in the modern era.The life of Francisco Goya (1746-1828) coincided with an age of transformation in Spanish history that brought upheavals in the country's...

A sweeping exploration of animals in Japanese art and culture across sixteen centuriesFew countries have devoted as much artistic energy to the depiction of animal life as Japan. Drawing upon the country's unique spiritual heritage, rich literary...

How science changed the way artists understand reality Exploring the Invisible shows how modern art expresses the first secular, scientific worldview in human history. Now fully revised and expanded, this richly illustrated book describes two...

The first study of album-making in the Ottoman empire during the seventeenth century, demonstrating the period's experimentation, eclecticism, and global outlookThe Album of the World Emperor examines an extraordinary piece of art: an album of paintings,...

A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their usesArt history is often viewed through cultural or national lenses that define some works as fine art while...

A new approach to late Ottoman visual culture and its place in the worldWith its idiosyncratic yet unmistakable adaptation of European Baroque models, the eighteenth-century architecture of Istanbul has frequently been dismissed by modern observers as...

Writings on human life and the refugee crisis by the most important political artist of our time Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is widely known as an artist across media: sculpture, installation, photography, performance, and architecture. He is also one...