History

Prior to the invention of the printing press, all books had to be written by hand. Manuscripts are the beautiful manifestation of this craft, and the most precious and expensive of such manuscripts were 'illuminated' through the use of brightly coloured...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781804910108Author Matt FractionFormat PaperbackPage Count 252Imprint Panini BooksPublisher Panini Publishing Ltd

Deep underground, hidden from view, some of humanity's earliest artistic endeavours have lain buried for thousands of years. The most ancient artworks were portable objects, left on cave floors. Shell beads signal that 100,000 years ago humans had...

In this remarkable autobiography, Man Ray - painter, photographer, sculptor, film maker and writer - relates the story of his life, from his childhood determination to be an artist and his technical drawing classes in a Brooklyn high school, to the...

When was art's first kiss? Who painted the first ever smile and the first self-portrait? When did Western art first depict a Black person or approach feminism? And why were each of these firsts so important? This book answers all these fascinating...

'Charming - a love-letter to home, history, and nature.'LEAH BROAD, Author of Quartet'A tender and illuminating history of an overlooked world.'HORATIO CLARE'Truly a revelation on every page.'PETROC TRELAWNY'A richly textured book, replete with...

A brilliant awakening to our vast shared potential and creative energy for change, from the beloved social media curator Stephen Ellcock. Featuring 240 reproductions of art, photography and objects, selected from cultures through history and across...

The architectural historian and critic Kenneth Frampton 'never recovered' from the force of Hannah Arendt's teaching at The New School in New York. The philosopher Richard J. Bernstein considers her the most perceptive political theorist and observer of...

'Exquisite ... A wonderment of an essay about a wonderment of a building' Paul Preston Its scaffolding-cloaked spires reach up to the heavens, dominating the Barcelona skyline and drawing in millions of visitors every year. What seduces our attention...

A large gap exists in the literature of ancient numismatics between general works intended for collectors and highly specialized studies addressed to numismatists. Indeed, there is hardly anything produced by knowledgeable numismatists that is easily...

The comprehensive study of the Italian Renaissance altarpiece from the 13th to the early 17th century The altarpiece is one of the most distinctive and remarkable art forms of the Renaissance period. It is difficult to imagine an artist of the...

Born into a large, musical, and bohemian family in London, the British artist John Craxton (1922-2009) has been described as a Neo-Romantic, but he called himself a "kind of Arcadian". His early art was influenced by Blake, Palmer, Miro, and Picasso...

Art and Architecture of Sicily is the first book to cover the rich artistic heritage of Sicily from prehistory up to the late 20th century. Sicily's strategic position in the centre of the Mediterranean led to settlement or conquest by a succession of...

The name Faberge has long been a byword for luxury. Combining an entrepreneurial vision for craftsmanship with innovative material sourcing and technical ability, Carl Faberge created an astonishing array of bespoke jewelled and enamelled objects at the...

Revealing the vital influence of the French artist Marie Laurencin, her visual idiom, and her sexual expression on the modernism of twentieth-century Paris This book offers a long-overdue reassessment of the career of the Parisian-born artist Marie...

First published by Lund Humphries in 2008, The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time has become the classic account of the St Ives group of artists. Our beautifully produced new edition, published in 2016, is now available in an accessible...

This magnificent boxed-set features stunning, accordion-fold, color reproductions of Van Gogh's essential works, accompanied by a separate booklet with background and descriptions of each painting Van Gogh's brilliant colors and expressive brush...

Diane Arbus was one of the greatest photographers of the last century. Her portraiture of freaks, circus performers, twins, nudists and others on the social margins connected with a wide public at a deep psychological level. Her suicide in New York in...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9788857240169Author Roxane ZandFormat HardbackPage Count 128Imprint SkiraPublisher SkiraWeight(grams) 1190g

Circle: "God is a circle whose center is everywhere but whose circumference is nowhere." Circle means perfection, cyclicity, superiority of the divinity, but also instability and movement. In nature soap bubbles are spherical and internal trees' rings...

Now on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Raphael Cartoons are widely considered one of the glories of the Italian Renaissance. Made as full-scale design drawings for tapestries, their survival is remarkable given their original...

Painter, poet and actor Salvator Rosa was one of the most engaging and charismatic personalities of seventeenth-century Italy. Although a gifted landscape painter, he longed to be seen as the pre-eminent philosopher-painter of his age. This new account...

This career-spanning exhibition catalog reveals the enormous artistic achievements-both individual and shared-of two of the greatest pioneers of twentieth-century modernism. Featuring more than two hundred and fifty works, including paintings,...

A plain speaking, jargon-free account of contemporary art that identifies key themes and approaches, providing the reader with a clear understanding of the contexts in which art is being made today. Since the 1960s contemporary art has overturned the...

The sea monsters on medieval and Renaissance maps, whether swimming vigorously, gambolling amid the waves, attacking ships, or simply displaying themselves for our appreciation, are one of the most visually engaging elements on these maps, and yet they...

Helen Bellany, twice married to the artist John Bellany, recalls their lives together in Scotland, London, and Italy, John's rise from poverty and obscurity to worldwide recognition, and the human cost inherent in creating great art. The sea was in both...

The Short Story of Modern Art explains the how, why and when of modern art - who introduced certain things, what they were, where they were produced, and why they matter. Simply constructed, the book explores 50 key works - from the realist painting...

Four essays on the psychological aspects of art. A study of Leonardo treats the work of art, and art itself, not as ends in themselves, but rather as instruments of the artist's inner situation. Two other essays discuss the relation of art to its epoch...

The second edition of Why Art Photography? is an updated, expanded introduction to the ideas behind today's striking photographic images. Lively, accessible discussions of key issues such as ambiguity, objectivity, fiction, authenticity, and...

To read most histories of art, you might be forgiven for supposing that great artists are superhuman, and the knowledge of different movements, periods and styles is essential to truly appreciate art.It's time to look at art in a new way.THE POWER OF ART...

In Kyffin Williams' centenary year, this monograph examines the life and work of an artist who, over six decades from Slade student to Royal Academician to knighthood, achieved both success and remarkable popular appeal.Best known for his rendering of...

When the original edition of this book was published, John Russell hailed it as a 'massive contribution to our knowledge of one of the most fascinating and mysterious episodes in the history of modern art.' It still remains the most compact, accurate and...

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) never left his homeland of the Netherlands but in his massive body of painting, drawing, and etching, he changed the course of Western art. His prolific oeuvre encompasses religious, historical, and secular scenes, as well...

Virginia Nicholson's Among the Bohemians is a portrait of England's artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century, engaged in a grand experiment.Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant - the Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780978588144Author Glen, U. CleetonFormat PaperbackPage Count 224Imprint Liber ApertusPublisher Liber ApertusWeight(grams) 515g

An essential and handy visual vocabulary of modern architecture. How to Read Modern Buildings is an indispensable pocket-sized guide to understanding the architecture of the modern era. This handy book takes you on a guided tour of modern...

'I have been ill and frightfully bored and the one thing I have wanted is a big album of your absurd beautiful drawings to turn over. You give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world.' - H. G. Wells to W. Heath Robinson (1914) ...

In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The thirty-three-year-old Michelangelo had very little experience of the physically and technically taxing art of fresco; and, at twelve thousand square feet,...

With meticulous theories and many thousands of paintings, drawings, and watercolors, Paul Klee (1879-1940) is considered one of the most cerebral and prolific leaders of 20th-century European art. Though typically small in scale, his works are remarkable...

Keith Haring (1958 -1990) is widely recognised for his colourful paintings, drawings, sculptures and murals. Haring exploded onto the early 1980s New York art scene with his vivid graffiti-inspired drawings, many of which found exposure in the public...