Artists, Architects, Photographers

The untold story of Michelangelo's final decades-and his transformation into one of the greatest architects of the Italian RenaissanceAs he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were...

An attractive new hardcover edition of the classic biography of Tamara de Lempicka, whose paintings defined Art Deco and whose life epitomised the Jazz Age. As F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed the mad glories of the 1920s on the printed page, ...

Barbara Hulanicki tells the story of the rise and fall of the tiny, energetic boutique that grew into a vast emporium and epitomised Swinging London. The Biba store was to become an icon of hip '60s and '70s London and a hangout for artists, film stars...

'That word, "vacation," makes me sweat.' Coco Chanel on taking a break'You must do it irregardless, or it will eat its way out of you.' Zora Neale Hurston on writing'One has to choose between the Life and the Project.' Susan Sontag on choosing artFrom...

'Utterly fascinating' Daisy Goodwin, Sunday TimesBenjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day,...

Learn about key movements like impressionism, cubism and symbolism in The Art Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Art in this overview guide to the...

Christian Dior (1905-1957) rocketed to fame with his first collection in 1947 when the "New Look" took the world by storm. This charming and modest autobiography gives a fascinating and detailed insight into the workings of a great fashion house, while...

This first biography of the Kettle's Yard artists reveals the life of a visionary who helped shape twentieth-century British art and explores a thrilling moment in the history of modernism'The beautiful, revelatory biography we have been waiting for. I...

'Inspired, innovative, remarkable' Independent 'Spurling has done better than anyone else at uncovering intimate information about Matisse' GuardianThe abridged, one-volume edition of Hilary Spurling's critically acclaimed biography of Henri Matisse, one...

Coco Chanel: The Illustrated World of a Fashion Icon is an illustrated biography of Coco's Chanel's life from the internationally reknown illustrator and author, Megan Hess. It features key moments from Coco's amazing life and iconic items from the...

When Christian Brechneff first set foot on the Greek island of Sifnos, it was the spring of 1972 and he was a twenty-one-year-old painter searching for artistic inspiration and a quiet place to work. There, this Swiss child of Russian emigres, adrift and...

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are those of...

In 1954, following her death, Frida Kahlo's possessions were locked away in the Casa Azul in Mexico City, her lifelong home. Half a century later, her collection of clothing, jewellery, cosmetics and other personal items was rediscovered. Frida Kahlo:...

"Chances are if you've shaved with an electric razor, blow-dried your hair, or sparked up a cigarette in the past 60 years, you owe a debt of gratitude to Dieter Rams." - New York TimesMade in close collaboration with Rams himself, this catalogue...

Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2018'If you are interested in modern British art, the book is unputdownable. If you are not, read it.' - Grey Gowrie, Financial Times 'All the good stories, and more, are here ... this is a genuinely encyclopaedic work,...

Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2018'If you are interested in modern British art, the book is unputdownable. If you are not, read it.' - Grey Gowrie, Financial Times 'All the good stories, and more, are here ... this is a genuinely encyclopaedic work,...

WINNER OF THE FRANCO-BRITISH SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD 2020'Art is a Tyrant recounts [Bonheur's] life with no little brio.' Michael Prodger, The Times Books of the Year 2020 'A diligently researched, beautifully produced and insistently sympathetic...

Alasdair Gray is known throughout the world for his writing, but he is also a highly regarded artist who not only illustrates and designs his own books, but has created many beautiful and intriguing portraits, paintings, posters and murals.Alasdair...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781936239979Author Michael MoynihanFormat HardbackPage Count 296Imprint Feral House,U.S.Publisher Feral House,U.S.Weight(grams) 1615g

Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most fascinating artists in history. Apprenticed at an early age to her father, the seventeenth-century painter Orazio Gentileschi, she rapidly became more famous than he was, for her rich, dramatic canvases. But her...

A FAMILY STORY AND THE TALE OF A NATION.Ai Weiwei - one of the world's most famous artists and activists - weaves a century-long epic tale of China through the story of his own life and that of his father, Ai Qing, the nation's most celebrated poet...

When the brilliant classical architect Charles Barry won the competition to build a new, Gothic, Houses of Parliament in London he thought it was the chance of a lifetime. It swiftly turned into the most nightmarish building programme of the century...

The remarkable story of George Daniels, the master craftsman who was born into poverty but raised himself to become the greatest watchmaker of the twentieth century. George Daniels (1926-2011) stands alone in modern times as the inventor of the...

Frida Kahlo is regarded as one of Mexico's greatest painters: her extraordinary personal style, her tragic story, her relationship with Diego Rivera (the more famous painter in their day) alongside her passionate paintings have made her a cult figure...

Tangled Paths tells the life story of Aby Warburg, one of the most influential historians of art and culture of the twentieth century. It also tells the story of a man who, throughout his life, struggled to assert his place in the world. Charting...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781906964320Author David HaycockFormat PaperbackImprint Old Street PublishingPublisher Old Street Publishing

'An absorbing book, beautifully told and with the writer fully in command of a huge body of research' Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday There was an epic sweep to Michelangelo's life. At 31 he was considered the finest artist in Italy, perhaps the world;...

Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond is the first monograph of Puerto Rican born artist Lee Quinones presenting his monumental work and following his evolution over five decades. 'An inspired outlaw with a meticulous design process and...

Clare Leighton was one of the finest engravers of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, when she settled in the countryside with her long-term partner, the political journalist Henry Noel Brailsford, she turned her creativity to the land. Gardening became...

Who was the man behind The Scream, the iconic painting that so acutely expresses the anguish of the twentieth century? Edvard Munch (1863 - 1944) was twenty-eight when he embarked on a lifelong effort to paint his 'soul's diary' - and began a perverse...

In Paris in 1902, Auguste Rodin had just completed The Thinker; visiting from Prague was Rainer Maria Rilke, broke and with writer's block. When Rilke was commissioned to write a book about Rodin, everything changed. You Must Change Your Life tells one...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781590170014Author Henri MichauxFormat PaperbackPage Count 200Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, IncWeight(grams)...

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'A great, thrusting codpiece of a book. It is big, bombastic and richly brocaded... A jewel in its own right' The Times 'Evokes the painter and his world as vividly as a Holbein masterpiece. Beautifully written and...

The lifetime of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) coincides with the most tumultuous period in the history of France and much of the Western world. And David's life was closely bound up with the changes that were taking place in French politics, society,...

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR The ten years leading up to the First World War were the most exciting, frenzied and revolutionary in the history of art. They were the crucible of Modernism, when Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Abstract...

WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK BIOGRAPHY PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONSelected as a Book of the Year in the Herald In 1845, a Reading bookseller named John Snare came across the...

'Her bravest work of performance art to date . . . Rawly intimate' ObserverThis memoir spans Marina Abramovic's five decade career, and tells a life story that is almost as exhilarating and extraordinary as her groundbreaking performance art. Taking us...

'Fizzes with clever vignettes and juicy tidbits... [a] joyous romp of a book.' Guardian'A fascinating, rollicking book in search of why, where and how fame strikes. Sit back and enjoy the ride.' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'[An] engaging and...

Graduating from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Martin Margiela (and his contemporaries in the Antwerp Six) transformed global fashion with his aggressive restatement of traditional fashion design and a polemical approach to luxury...

A lavishly illustrated retrospective in celebration of 100 years since Judith Kerr's birth, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and many other iconic books. Judith Kerr was one of the best-loved authors and...