Criticism & Theory

Why do we need art? What Art Does is an invitation to explore this vital question. It is a chance to understand how art is made by all of us. How it creates communities, opens our worlds, and can transform us.Curious and playful, richly illustrated, full...

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...

The 50th anniversary edition of a classic text, featuring an expanded selection of color studies Josef Albers's Interaction of Color is a masterwork in art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this...

'How rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read' MEGAN NOLAN, Sunday Times'An exhilarating, shape-shifting exploration of the perilous boundaries between art and life' JENNY OFFILLPablo Picasso beat his partners. Richard...

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER****SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD**Uncovering the mystery of her mother's disappearance as a child: Laura Cumming, prize-winning author and art critic, takes a closer look at her family story.'A modern...

This important addition to our understanding of art history's masterworks puts some of the world's most famous paintings under a magnifying glass to uncover their most small and subtle elements and all they reveal about a bygone time, place, and culture...

'An essential text for anyone who wants to start making art and not stop. One of those rare books - like The Artist's Way and Writing Down the Bones - to keep close by for courage and company.' - Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep and creator...

FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR'Sparkles with brilliant observations on art and architecture, friendship and loss' Guardian'Everybody should get to spend a month with Mr. Matar, looking at paintings' Zadie Smith, Wall...

'Insights from the zeitgeist are preserved with conviction and clarity, offering an inclusive way to access contemporary art in all its forms. If Talk Art is the fun podcast, then this book is the educational supplement to be prescribed alongside it.' -...

The Divine Proportion reveals a number of simple patterns: It is seen in the seed patterns of fruits, the family tree of bees, the pyramids of Egypt, Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance paintings, the human body, shells ... the list is endless. ...

One of the most important works of cultural theory ever written, Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking essay explores how the age of mass media means audiences can listen to or see a work of art repeatedly - and what the troubling social and political...

Reviewing the work of Bonnard, one of the best-loved artists of the modern period, this book draws insights into his personality from his paintings. It is published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, in February...

How to Write About Contemporary Art is the definitive guide to writing engagingly about the art of our time. Invaluable for students, arts professionals and other aspiring writers, the book first navigates readers through the key elements of style and...

Brimming with upbeat guidance, this accessible handbook shows how anyone can use art to enlighten, uplift, calm and ease stress and anxieties. Visual art is enlightening, challenging, informative and arresting; but it can also be therapeutic, reducing...

'To create today is to create dangerously'Camus argues passionately that the artist has a responsibility to challenge, provoke and speak up for those who cannot in this powerful speech, accompanied here by two others.Penguin Modern: fifty new books...

Two authorities on popular culture reveal the ways in which art can enhance mood and enrich lives - now available in paperback This passionate, thought-provoking, often funny, and always-accessible book proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting...

LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE'Irreverent, provocative and funny' Dazed'This book might change the way you look at art, or change the way you feel it' Daisy Hildyard'A full-throated defence of the inherent value of making, experiencing and talking...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780593297582Author Adam MossFormat HardbackPage Count 432Imprint Bantam PressPublisher Random House USA Inc

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781913947026Author Anne D'AllevaFormat PaperbackPage Count 200Imprint Laurence King PublishingPublisher Laurence King PublishingWeight(grams)...

Embodying the entire system of Robert Henri's teaching, The Art Spirit contains much valuable advice, critical comment, and inspiration to every student of the arts.About the AuthorRobert Henri was born in Cincinnati in 1865 and died in 1929. He led the...

What can freedom really mean?'One of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation' OLIVIA LAINGIn this invigorating, essential book, Maggie Nelson explores how we might think,...

Learning to Look at Paintings is an accessible guide to the study and appraisal of paintings, drawings and prints. Mary Acton shows how you can develop visual, analytical and historical skills in learning to look at and understand an image by analysing...

TATE BOOK OF THE MONTH 2023A timely critique of consumer culture which captures this image-obsessed moment in history, perfect for fans of Zadie Smith's Feel Free and Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror.This book is not a taste, nor an anti-taste, manual.This...

Winner of the Apollo Book of the Year Award 2024 Drawing is at the heart of human creativity. The most democratic form of art-making, it requires nothing more than a plain surface and a stub of pencil, a piece of chalk or an inky brush. Our prehistoric...

Revolutionary essays on design, aesthetics and materialism - from one of the great masters of modern architectureAdolf Loos, the great Viennese pioneer of modern architecture, was a hater of the fake, the fussy and the lavishly decorated, and a lover of...

Few living artists can claim to have had the influence of Michael Craig- Martin. Celebrated around the world for his distinctive work, and with major retrospectives, high-profile commissions and numerous honours to his name, he has also helped nurture...

"Wild Art" refers to work that exists outside the established, rarified world of art galleries and cultural channels. It encompasses uncatalogued, uncommodified art not often recognized as such, from graffiti to performance, self-adornment, and beyond...

A stunning art gallery in a book, art, annotated spans more than 3,000 years of paintings, sculptures, and prints.Combining reproductions of each work of art with precise annotations and visual analysis, it is an expertly curated selection of the finest...

With an introduction by Hubertus von Amelunxen Media philosopher Vilem Flusser proposed a revolutionary new way of thinking about photography. An analysis of the medium in terms of aesthetics, science and politics provided him with new ways of...

During his decades of world fame as a novelist, Tolstoy also wrote prolifically in a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice and religion. These works culminated in What is Art?, published in 1898. Impassioned and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781913947019Author Anne D'AllevaFormat PaperbackPage Count 168Imprint Laurence King PublishingPublisher Laurence King PublishingWeight(grams)...

From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity's quintessential-and often overlooked-role in the spiritual life "Makoto Fujimura's art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780486234113Author Wassily KandinskyFormat PaperbackPage Count 80Imprint Dover Publications Inc.Publisher Dover Publications Inc.Weight(grams)...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780802842671Author James Luther AdamsFormat PaperbackPage Count 304Imprint William B Eerdmans Publishing CoPublisher William B Eerdmans Publishing...

Art and Pornography presents a series of essays which investigate the artistic status and aesthetic dimension of pornographic pictures, films, and literature, and explores the distinction, if there is any, between pornography and erotic art. Is there any...

Clement Greenberg is widely recognized as the most influential and articulate champion of modernism during its American ascendency after World War II, the period largely covered by these highly acclaimed volumes of _The Collected Essays and Criticism_...

Writing in the tradition of Susan Sontag and Elaine Scarry, Maggie Nelson has emerged as one of our foremost cultural critics with this landmark work about representations of cruelty and violence in art. From Sylvia Plath's poetry to Francis Bacon's...

In My View is a collection of reflections by 78 contemporary artists in which each artist reveals the influence and inspiration he or she has found in a particular artwork or artist. Among the artists are John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Chuck Close,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781914236075Author The White Pube The White PubeFormat PaperbackPage Count 34Imprint Rough Trade BooksPublisher Rough Trade Books

Today, artists are engaged in investigation. They probe corruption, state violence, environmental destruction and repressive technologies. At the same time, fields not usually associated with aesthetics make powerful use of it. Journalists and legal...