Criticism & Theory

**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...

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...

Alchemy is the art of transmuting base metal into gold - a material process that also functions as a metaphor for spiritual transformation and creativity. This book contains all the information and skills you need to start practising alchemy - to unite...

What does the breathtakingly beautiful art depicted on the walls of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, tell us about the nature of the ancestral mind? How did these images spring, seemingly from nowhere into the human story? The Mind in the...

A concise introduction to paintings in the Western European tradition, through the stories of 50 powerful artworks by artists from Van Gogh to da Vinci. How to Read Paintings is a valuable visual guide to Western European painting. Through a gallery...

'I have never read such a stimulating short guide to art' Lynn Barber, Sunday Times Now Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called this...

Colour is a given of most people's everyday lives, but at the same time it lies at the limits of language and understanding. David Batchelor's previous book for Reaktion, Chromophobia, addressed the extremes of love and loathing that colour has provoked...

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)...

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...

What is art history? Why, how, and where did it originate, and how have its methods changed over time? The history of art has been written and rewritten since classical antiquity. Since the foundation of the modern discipline of art history in Germany in...

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...

The avant-garde movements of Dada and Surrealism continue to have a huge influence on cultural practice, especially in contemporary art, with its obsession with sexuality, fetishism, and shock tactics. In this new treatment of the subject, Hopkins...

In the ten conversations with the writer and theologian Klaus Dermutz collected here, Kiefer returns to the essential elements of his art, his aesthetics, and his creative processes. The only visual artist to have won the Peace Prize of the German Book...

This legendary book has been universally hailed as the best, the most readable and the most provocative account of modern art ever written. Through each of the thematic chapters Hughes keeps his story grounded in the history of the 20th century,...

Edmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely on aesthetics, politics and society. In this landmark work, he propounds his theory that the sublime and the beautiful should be regarded as distinct and wholly...

Featuring a handsome new package redesigned by the author himself, this edition is a must-have for fans and collectors of Luigi Serafini s art. First published in 1981 in Milan by F.M. Ricci, the book has been hailed as one of the most unusual yet...

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edgar DegasCovering every era and over 650 artists, this comprehensive, illustrated guide offers an accessible yet expansive view of art history, featuring everything from iconic works and...

One of the last surviving members of the futurist generation, Bruno Munari's Design as Art is an illustrated journey into the artistic possibilities of modern design translated by Patrick Creagh published as part of the 'Penguin on Design' series in...

Think Like an Artist by BBC Arts editor Will Gompertz - wisdom and smart thinking from Da Vinci to Ai WeiweiWhy do some people seem to find it easy to come up with fresh, brilliant ideas? And how do they turn them into something worthwhile?After spending...

Many designs that appear in today's society will circulate and encounter audiences of many different cultures and languages. With communication comes responsibility; are designers aware of the meaning and impact of their work? An image or symbol that is...

Internationally renowned dealer and market expert Michael Findlay offers a lively and authoritative look at the financial and emotional value of art throughout history. In this newly revised, updated, and generously illustrated edition Findlay draws...

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...

Molly Bang's brilliant, insightful, and accessible treatise is now revised and expanded for its 25th anniversary. Bang's powerful ideas remain unparalleled in their simplicity and genius: Explore the intricate and thought-provoking ideas that Bang...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781908970503Author Michael Craig-MartinFormat PaperbackPage Count 304Imprint Art / BooksPublisher Art / BooksWeight(grams) 840g

'Groundbreaking . . . a scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history' Bernardine...

A Village Voice Book, this seminal work presents new models of vision and examines modern theories of seeing.About the AuthorHal Foster is Townsend Martin Class of 1917 Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, where he teaches courses in...

In recent years, the rise of research-creation-a scholarly activity that considers art practices as research methods in their own right-has emerged from the organic convergences of the arts and interdisciplinary humanities, and it has been fostered by...

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...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780486277196Author Gustave DoreFormat PaperbackPage Count 64Imprint Dover Publications Inc.Publisher Dover Publications Inc.Weight(grams) 230gDimensions(mm)...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9789493148949Author Kristiina KoskentolaFormat PaperbackPage Count 176Imprint OnomatopeePublisher Onomatopee

***BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK***'Funny, lively and convivial... 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...

Few paintings inspire the kind of intense study and speculation as Garden of Earthly Delights, the world famous triptych by Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch. The painting has been interpreted as a heretical masterpiece, an opulent illustration of...

As seen in Forbes, Colossal, and The Art Newspaper Over 100 global artists working with collage, as chosen by a team of art experts - an indispensable who's who of the most exciting and innovative names working in the medium Collage is an artistic...

This project addresses the contexts of Practice as Research and how to undertake it. The first (2013) edition was described by one reader (Park Stickney, Associate professor of jazz harp at RCM and doctoral candidate) as a Rosetta Stone "speaking to...

Linda Nochlin's seminal essay on women artists is widely acknowledged as the first real attempt at a feminist history of art. Nochlin refused to handle the question of why there had been no 'great women artists' on its own, corrupted, terms. Instead, she...

***'An indispensable volume'Vogue'As rabid admirers and collectors of contemporary art and photography we wholeheartedly recommend this passionate and joyous book. Without art the human soul is unfulfilled. This collection by Russell and Robert fully...

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...

The rules of composition have changed. Discover the new ideas that shape the art we make today. Art has changed beyond recognition since the principles of harmonious composition were established in classical times. From the invention of photography to...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780874776317Author Stephen NachmanovitchFormat PaperbackPage Count 224Imprint Tarcher/Putnam,USPublisher Tarcher/Putnam,USDimensions(mm) 203mm * 127mm * 15mm

Thinking about Art explores some of the greatest works of art and architecture in the world through the prism of themes, instead of chronology, to offer intriguing juxtapositions of art and history. The book ranges across time and topics, from the...