Criticism & Theory

This is one of the classic books on craftsmanship and design. In it, David Pye explores the meaning of skill and its relationship to design and manufacture. Cutting through a century of fuzzy thinking, he proposes a new theory of making based on the...

In her debut book, A. V. Marraccini explores how we inhabit works of art, and how our sense of longing informs and changes our relationship to them. Intertwining fig wasps, Updike, Genet, Twombly, Rilke, jewel heists, and a vividly rendered panoply of...

From world-renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Lives of the Artists, Lives of the Architects offers a unique opportunity to learn about the lives and creativity of the world's leading artistsHans Ulrich Obrist has been conducting ongoing conversations...

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...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781570620782Author Pat B. AllenFormat PaperbackPage Count 224Imprint Shambhala Publications IncPublisher Shambhala Publications IncWeight(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...

Creation and the giving of orders are closely entwined in Western culture, where God commands the world into existence and later issues the injunctions known as the Ten Commandments. The arche, or origin, is always also a command, and a beginning is...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780486421674Author Arthur RackhamFormat PaperbackPage Count 64Imprint Dover Publications Inc.Publisher Dover Publications Inc.Weight(grams)...

An ambitious and revelatory investigation of the black female figure in modern art, tracing the legacy of Manet through to contemporary art This revelatory study investigates how changing modes of representing the black female figure were foundational to...

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...

'Art is not a luxury. Art is a basic social need to which everyone has a right'.This extraordinary collection of 100 artists' manifestos from across the globe over the last 100 years brings together activists, post-colonialists, surrealists, socialists,...

The Chinese often use the expression du hua, "to read a painting," in connection with their study and appreciation of such works. This volume closely "reads" thirty-six masterpieces of Chinese painting from the encyclopedic collection of The Metropolitan...

While there have been monographs on British artist-travellers in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there has been no equivalent survey of what the writer, Henry Blackburn, described as 'artistic travel' a hundred years later. By 1900, the...

Elizabeth Wilson is one of our most radical cultural critics. In "Cultural Passions" she transcends the division between 'high' and 'low' culture, exploring the emotional commitment people bring to the books, performances, objects and rituals in which...

At once engaging, personal, and analytical, this book provides the intellectual resources for the critical understanding of art Charles Harrison's landmark book offers an original, clear, and wide-ranging introduction to the arts of painting and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781941701898Author Jarrett EarnestFormat PaperbackPage Count 560Imprint David ZwirnerPublisher David ZwirnerWeight(grams) 970g

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...

Why do we have such extraordinarily powerful responses toward the images and pictures we see in everyday life? Why do we behave as if pictures were alive, possessing the power to influence us, to demand things from us, to persuade us, seduce us, or even...

"This kaleidoscopic collection will help you see and comprehend the world anew-which is, in my book, what good art should do." -Astra Taylor It is a scary and disorienting time for art, as it is a scary and disorienting time in general. Aesthetic...

A groundbreaking and extensively researched account of the 1960s London art scene In the 1960s, London became a vibrant hub of artistic production. Postwar reconstruction, jet air travel, television arts programs, new color supplements, a generation of...

'A terrific and important book ...it's a great, fresh take on how the 21st century is transforming the way we select everything from food to music' David Bodanis, author of E=MC2 In the past two years humanity has produced more data than the rest of...

Photography is often associated with the psychic effects of trauma: the automatic nature of the process, wide-open camera lens, and light-sensitive film record chance details unnoticed by the photographer similar to what happens when a traumatic event...

A panoramic insider's account of the global art industry, revealing the fascinating but mysterious workings of the world of contemporary art. Over the last few decades the contemporary art world has become more globalized and more visible than ever...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9789492095404Author Janwillem SchroferFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint ValizPublisher ValizWeight(grams) 408gDimensions(mm) 218mm * 150mm * 20mm

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...

This is a fascinating re-examination of the importance and legacy of provenance in the history of art. This book goes beyond the narrow definition of the term provenance, which addresses only the bare facts of ownership and transfer, to explore ideas...

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...

In recent years, many prominent and successful artists have claimed that their primary concern is not the artwork they produce but the artistic process itself. In this volume, Kim Grant analyzes this idea and traces its historical roots, showing how...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780998267586Author Mayrocker FriederikeFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint A Public SpacePublisher A Public Space

Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) was one of the most pioneering and provocative art historians of our time. In 1971 she published her groundbreaking article, 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?', an impassioned feminist rallying cry that called...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780870708923Author Calvin TomkinsFormat PaperbackPage Count 552Imprint Museum of Modern ArtPublisher Museum of Modern ArtWeight(grams) 1060g

Joseph Beuys' work continues to influence and inspire practitioners and thinkers all over the world, in areas from organizational learning, direct democracy and new money forms to new art pedagogies and ecological art practices. Here, in dialogue with...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781945147425Author Daniel A SchulkeFormat PaperbackPage Count 80Imprint Three Hands PressPublisher Three Hands PressWeight(grams) 100gDimensions(mm) 175mm *...

Contemporary art is obsessed with the politics of identity. Visit any contemporary gallery, museum or theatre, and chances are the art on offer will be principally concerned with race, gender, sexuality, power and privilege.The quest for truth, freedom...

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,...

Since its publication fifty years ago, this work has established itself as a classic. It casts the visual process in psychological terms and describes the creative way one's eye organizes visual material according to specific psychological premises. In...

In Six Years Lucy R. Lippard documents the chaotic network of ideas that has been labeled conceptual art. The book is arranged as an annotated chronology into which is woven a rich collection of original documents--including texts by and taped...

Design thinking is the core creative process for any designer; this book explores and explains this apparently mysterious design ability. This new edition is a completely revised, updated and extended version of a classic text. Focusing on what...

A timeline of artistic endeavour from the formal resources of the past to the boom-and-bust media hype of a postmodern age.In these celebrated essays Robert Hughes explores the lives and works of more than 80 artists, from Hans Holbein to Andy Warhol and...

In this classic Reaktion title, Norman Bryson analyses the origins, history and logic of still-life, one of the most enduring forms of Western painting. From Roman wall-painting to Cubism, and from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life to Bryson's...