This fresh and engaging, illustrated history of art explains the fundamentals every art lover needs while presenting the development of different schools and styles as one continuous, astonishing timeline— from Giotto to Leonardo, Frida to Banksy. When she became interested in painting, the author would visit museums and wonder about all the information she was missing. How did one style develop after another? What meanings were hidden in these works? What were these artists’ lives like? How did their works survive for so many years? She longed for the kind of essential knowledge that would enable her to decode a painting loaded with references. The result of her curiosity is a highly accessible and vividly illustrated book that brings together the fundamentals of eight centuries of art. It covers the basics about such topics as how museums are structured, how painters use proportion and perspective, the anatomy of a painting. Jouneaux offers surprising comparisons between artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell, Delacroix and Rubens. Terms such as Baroque, Ukiyo-e, Graffiti, Cubism, Degenerate Art, and De Stijl are explored and explained. Non-western traditions are given much greater prominence than in other art history books – Chinese, Indian, Australian Aboriginal, and African Art are all included in the timeline. Numerous women artists who were overlooked during the author’s own education are restored to the canon. Accompanying the unpretentious but authoritative texts are hundreds of illustrations, reproductions, timelines and sidebars.

Bind: hardback

Dimensions: 177 x 228 mm

Publication Date: 31-03-2024

An opulent fusion of sensuality, symbolism, and artistic ingenuity, this magnificent boxed-set features stunning color reproductions of Klimt’s essential works in an accordion-fold format accompanied by a separate booklet with background and descriptions of each painting. Gustav Klimt’s luminous paintings are particularly suited for an accordion-fold presentation. As each painting unfolds into a lavish reproduction, Klimt’s dazzling colors and intricate patterns spring to life. This volume includes several highlights of Klimt’s works including The Kiss, his portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer, The Tree of Life, Danae, and Death and Life. The stunning reproductions allow readers to experience close up Klimt’s intricate details and artful use of gold leaf; his art’s symbolism and emotional power; his decorative aesthetic, and beguiling landscapes. A separate booklet with explanatory captions providing additional background and historic context accompanies the main volume. Klimt’s many fans will cherish this fresh, unique, extraordinary celebration of the artist’s timeless brilliance and monumental talent.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 240

Dimensions: 185 x 260 mm

Publication Date: 05-03-2024

Filled with brilliant reproductions and engaging texts and reflecting the latest scholarship, this portable and attractively priced volume is the perfect introduction to the most celebrated painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Highlighted by domestic scenes and witty allegories that fuse the ordinary with the extraordinary, Vermeer’s luminous paintings have captivated and inspired art enthusiasts for centuries. This book spotlights dozens of his works with stunning reproductions that enable readers to appreciate his mastery of light and shadow, meticulous brushwork, his extraordinary gift for capturing human emotion on canvas, and his innovative use of optical devices. An introductory essay provides biographical background, examines Vermeer’s work in the context of the Dutch Golden Age of painting, and explores his enormous influence on modern artists and popular culture.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 112

Dimensions: 170 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 25-03-2024

Brimming with stunning reproductions and illuminating texts, this handy and accessible book is the perfect introduction to one of European modern art’s most important movements. Founded in Munich in 1911, the Blue Rider Group was a revolutionary collective of artists that pioneered German Expressionism. Including Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Natalia Goncharova, Gabriele Münter, and Marianne von Werefkin, the group rejected the prevailing formal and academic artistic trends of their time, sought to break free from the constraints of traditional painting, transcend the material world, and explore emotional and spiritual truths in their art. This book spotlights 35 important works that embody the artists’ pioneering achievements and radical innovations. It features stunning reproductions that highlight the movement’s use of luminous colors, symbolic forms, and expressive brushwork.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 112

Dimensions: 170 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 25-03-2024

This exquisite collection of paintings illustrates just how marvelously the Pre- Raphaelites’ focus on the natural world intersected with the Victorian passion for all things botanical. Short-lived but highly influential, the Pre-Raphaelite movement was fueled by a rejection of academic artistic conventions and a longing for the aesthetic simplicity and moral sincerity of medieval and early Renaissance art. But it also coincided with a Victorian obsession with botany, gardening and flower arranging. As a result, painters such as Rosetti, Millais and Hughes populated their works with floral symbols that were steeped in religious and cultural significance. This stunning book examines the greatest of these works, including portraits of Hamlet’s Ophelia, the Virgin Mary, and figures from Greek mythology and medieval lore. Each entry features a full-page reproduction of the painting, accompanied by smaller details and an engaging text that offers fascinating background and contextual clues to deepen readers’ appreciation of the Pre- Raphaelite language. As lush and colorful as a late summer bouquet, this book is the perfect gift for lovers of flowers as well as for fans of romantic Victorian art.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 96

Dimensions: 162 x 215 mm

Publication Date: 05-03-2024

The transformative power of contemporary textiles is the subject of this exhibition catalog that examines how and why textile has been a fertile medium for artists to question regimes of power and hierarchies of value. Bringing together more than 100 works by a diverse range of international practitioners, this eye-opening volume explores how textile art can be as discomforting as it is beautiful, and how age-old materials and processes are being reimagined with boundary-smashing innovations. From intimate hand-crafted works to large-scale sculptural installations, this book celebrates the legacies of artists such as Pacita Abad, the arpilleristas, and José Leonilson. Also featured here are works by living artists such as Igshaan Adams, Tracey Emin, and Cecilia Vicuña. With new scholarship and beautifully produced imagery, this collection of renowned artists from around the world reveals the extraordinary potential of textiles to confront fixed notions of history, race, gender, sexual expression, and class—and how, ultimately, it can be a powerful force for both resistance and repair.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 240 x 280 mm

Publication Date: 05-03-2024

This beautiful and inspirational portrait of a country garden shows how its owners created deep connections to the natural world with techniques and advice any gardener can use. In 2018, photographers Susann Probst and Yannic Schon left Berlin for the German countryside with the aim of growing wholesome produce whilst maintaining a healthy ecosystem through sustainable farming. They bought an old farmhouse on a plot of land with room for a vegetable garden, an orchard, a wildflower meadow, and a greenhouse. Filled with useful and hard-won information that is the result of both ingenuity and trial-and-error, this book takes readers on a detailed and exquisitely illustrated tour of the property and its development over its first five years. Susann and Yannic share what they’ve learned about garden design, soil composition, beneficial organisms, so-called pests, edible perennials, plant care, and self-sufficiency, and include a listing of all the species and varieties they’ve planted. A breathtaking photographic section celebrates the beauty of the land through the seasons. More than a garden-variety gardening guide, this deeply personal and gorgeously produced book documents a lifelong dream becoming a reality—and celebrates a contemporary approach to country life that will speak to anyone looking for ways to deepen their own relationship with nature.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 240

Dimensions: 210 x 270 mm

Publication Date: 26-03-2024

Acknowledging the iconic, but with plenty of room for the rare and unfamiliar, The Art of the Classic Western Movie Poster presents poster art created for several hundred classic (and not-so-classic) westerns produced from 1903 to 1978. More than 800 images—many reproduced as full page—make this the most comprehensive book of western movie poster art ever published, and the definitive history of a genre often underestimated for its impact on American audiences. One of the earliest narrative films, 1903’s The Great Train Robbery, was a western, and before commercial cinema was a decade old the form had proliferated to such an extent that practically every nickelodeon in the country used short-length shoot-’em-ups in their daily programs. The book begins with a fact-heavy introduction that details how western movies became popular as a result of America’s fascination with the Wild West, as portrayed in dime novels and pulp-fiction magazines. How and when the genre archetypes—white hat vs. black hat, the cowboy’s love for his horse, the western hero as roving do-gooder—were fixed is discussed. The difference between “A” and “B” movies and which westerns fit into those categories are also explained (“A”s including such movies as Stagecoach, Destry Rides Again, and True Grit, and “B”s such films as Gold Mine in the Sky, Saga of Death Valley, and Hopalong Cassidy, and the likes of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers). Each chapter devotes a special feature to a specific “western” star, writer, director, stuntman, or leading lady. Also included are the author’s firsthand interviews conducted from as far back as the mid-1970s. This unique book is a celebration of the American motion picture’s first and most enduringly popular genre.

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 254 x 279 mm

Publication Date: 28-03-2024

Featuring the works Japan’s most celebrated neko-e artists, this gorgeous boxed set contains a volume of more than seventy exquisite accordion-fold prints and an accompanying booklet with explanatory texts. For centuries, cats have played an essential role in Japanese culture and folklore. Long before Hello Kitty, they were fetishized and revered by every strata of Japanese society, especially by artists. This volume collects dozens of prints by the greatest masters of Japanese printmaking including Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Utamaro, and Kunichika. It beautifully reflects the complex nature of the country’s attachment to felines. Cats are depicted as playful and cuddly, menacing and predatory; they are imbued with erotic meaning; and regarded as symbols of wealth and taste. They can be seen as having human qualities, yet also take on monstrous forms. Each of these prints captures its subject’s personality with meticulous detail, vibrant colors, and intricate patterns. Included in this package is a booklet featuring an introduction to and brief texts about each of the works—making this the perfect gift for cat fanciers, Japanese culture enthusiasts and lovers of woodblock prints.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 226

Dimensions: 123 x 176 mm

Publication Date: 05-03-2024

As fascinating and colorful as its subject, this visually striking celebration of Japanese food shows the importance of aesthetics in everything, from haute cuisine to vending machines. In Japan, where a meal is typically described as a feast for the eyes, food is a matter of national identity and heritage. Oishii! (which means ‘delicious’ in English) explores the aesthetics of the country’s cuisine from a variety of perspectives, including interviews with world-famous chefs, scholars, designers, popular home cooks, patisserie chefs, artists, and more. It looks at Japanese food through the seasons; traces contemporary trends such as bento boxes and kawaii character cafés; takes readers to destinations like the Shin- Yokohama Ramen Museum and the fish roe-themed Mentai Park; and dives into culturally-specific phenomena including plastic display food, manga, and vending machines. Japanese culture expert Manami Okazaki offers a kaleidoscopic investigation of every aspect of the nation’s cuisine, resulting in a book that is both comprehensive and contemporary. Filled with hundreds of photographs as well as a pull-out sticker sheet, it’s packed tighter than a bento box with fun and useful information.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 176

Dimensions: 195 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 15-03-2024