Criticism & Theory

'Dizzyingly flexible, deeply human, often funny, it blasts aside our preconceptions and urges us to see the world as it is' iFeminist philosophy meets family memoir in Siri Hustvedt's most personal essay collection yet, a scintillating and profound...

Engraved shell-cases, bullet-crucifixes, letter openers and cigarette lighters made of shrapnel and cartridges, miniature aeroplanes and tanks, talismanic jewellery, embroidery, objects carved from stone, bone and wood - all of these things are trench...

Before publishing the sensuous and scandalous poems of Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) had already earned respect as a forthright and witty critic of art and literature. This stimulating selection of criticism reveals him as a worshipper...

The 23 essays (or "love songs") that make up the now classic volume Air Guitar trawl a "vast, invisible underground empire" of pleasure, through record stores, honky-tonks, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and hot-rod stores, as...

The hidden life of the greatest surviving work of Inca artThe most celebrated Andean artwork in the world is a five-hundred-year-old Inca tunic made famous through theories about the meanings of its intricate designs, including attempts to read them as a...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781913689346Author Catriona McaraFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint Strange Attractor PressPublisher Strange Attractor Press

When it was first released in 1962, The Shape of Time presented a radically new approach to the study of art history. Drawing upon new insights in fields such as anthropology and linguistics, George Kubler replaced the notion of style as the basis for...

An in-depth exploration of Malevich's pivotal painting, its context and its significance Kazimir Malevich's painting Black Square is one of the twentieth century's emblematic paintings, the visual manifestation of a new period in world artistic culture...

'This is a history of intellectual courage, hard work, occasional inspiration and every conceivable form of human failing. It is also an extended invitation to wonder, to pleasure'How far have we come in our understanding of the world around us? In this...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262611985Author Mike KelleyFormat PaperbackPage Count 458Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdWeight(grams) 998g

In How to See, David Salle explores how art works and how it moves us, informs us and challenges us. This internationally renowned painter's incisive essay collection illuminates the work of many of the most influential artists of the twentieth century...

Unlike being in class or in an enthusiast's group, creating alone means critiquing alone. There is so much information available demonstrating where you might be going wrong, yet assessing your own work still feels overwhelming. This follow-up title to...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9783956790072Author Isabelle GrawFormat PaperbackPage Count 292Imprint Sternberg PressPublisher Sternberg PressWeight(grams) 666gDimensions(mm) 191mm * 121mm...

"Art is necessary in order that man should be able to recognize and change the world. But art is also necessary by virtue of the magic inherent in it."-Ernst FischerReissued with an introduction by John Berger, The Necessity of Art is a beautifully...

John Armitage and Joanne Roberts present a groundbreaking examination of the relations between historical and, crucially, contemporary ideas of luxury. This volume gives you a technocultural focus on aesthetic, design-led and media practice with key case...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9783905829556Author Daniel BirnbaumFormat PaperbackPage Count 200Imprint JRP RingierPublisher JRP Ringier

However beautiful or technically dazzling your photographs might be, if they don't tell a story, convey an idea or make your viewer stop and think, they are unlikely to make a lasting impression. Context and Narrative in Photography introduces practical...

Whats the difference between a cast shadow and a form shadow? Why do shadows become increasingly important in Western art? Can we only ever see shadows, not objects themselves, as Plato claimed? In this beautiful little book, printmaker and History of...

Wilhelm Worringer's landmark study in the interpretation of modern art, first published in 1908, has seldom been out of print. Its profound impact not only on art historians and theorists but also for generations of creative writers and intellectuals is...

Since the 1979 publication of The Writings of Robert Smithson, Robert Smithson's significance as a spokesman for a generation of artists has been widely acknowledged and the importance of his thinking to contemporary artists and art critics continues to...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781597523141Author Dr Leland RykenFormat PaperbackPage Count 284Imprint Wipf & Stock PublishersPublisher Wipf & Stock PublishersWeight(grams)...

Pre-eminent author and art historian Simon Schama has written widely on art for many years to great acclaim. In Hang-Ups, a personal selection of his articles from, amongst others, The New Yorker, appears in Britain for the very first time. ...

Pre-eminent author and art historian Simon Schama has written widely on art for many years to great acclaim. In Hang-Ups, a personal selection of his articles from, amongst others, The New Yorker, appears in Britain for the very first time. ...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9783960983897Author Dakis JoannouFormat PaperbackPage Count 120Imprint Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther KonigPublisher Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther...

A ground-breaking new anthology in the Art in Theory series, offering an examination of the changing relationships between the West and the wider world in the field of art and material culture Art in Theory: The West in the World is a ground-breaking...

Michael Fried's often controversial art criticism defines the contours of late modernism in the visual arts. This volume contains 27 pieces, including the introduction to the catalogue for "Three American Painters," the text of his book "Morris Louis,"...

Communities of Sense argues for a new understanding of the relation between politics and aesthetics in today's globalized and image-saturated world. Established and emerging scholars of art and culture draw on Jacques Ranciere's theorization of...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780854882670Author Sophie WilliamsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 240Imprint Whitechapel GalleryPublisher Whitechapel Gallery

What makes Scottish art Scottish? In this now classic text, Murdo Macdonald explores the distinctive characteristics of Scottish art over the centuries - such as the heritage of Celtic design with its emphasis on intricate pattern; the importance of the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780812971422Author Victoria FinlayFormat PaperbackPage Count 464Imprint Random House Trade PaperbacksPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams)...

Originally delivered as the prestigious Mellon Lectures on the Fine Arts in 1995, After the End of Art remains a classic of art criticism and philosophy, and continues to generate heated debate for contending that art ended in the 1960s. Arthur Danto,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262561075Author Hal FosterFormat PaperbackPage Count 328Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdWeight(grams) 635gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 178mm * 14mm

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781941701331Author Abigail McEwenFormat HardbackPage Count 192Imprint David ZwirnerPublisher David ZwirnerWeight(grams) 1510g

The first collection of Mark Rothko's writings, which range the entire span of his career While the collected writings of many major 20th-century artists, including Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt, have been published, Mark Rothko's...

First published in 1996, this irreplaceable resource has now been updated, revised, and expanded by Kristine Stiles to represent thirty countries and more than one hundred new artists. Stiles has added forty images and a diverse roster of artists,...

This groundbreaking study explores the deep connections between modern and premodern art, offering a radical reading that reveals the underlying patterns and ideas traversing centuries of artistic practice. Nagel reconsiders from an innovative double...

Manufacturing Architecture is the first reference guide to customising repetitive manufacturing for architects. Clear diagrams and narratives explain twenty of the most common manufacturing processes for typical building components. Case studies...

A landmark anthology on British art history, bringing together overlooked and marginalized perspectives from 'the critical decade'What is Black art? This vital anthology gives voice to a generation of artists of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage who...

In October 2015, metal detectorist James Mather discovered an important Viking hoard near Watlington in South Oxfordshire. The hoard dates from the end of the 870s, a key moment in the struggle between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings for control of southern...

"Eyes in Ears: Art in Music / Music in Art since 1948" traces the interactions and mutual influences of art and music over the past sixty years. It presents a narrative of late-Modern/Postmodern artistic practice, connecting familiar events, figures and...