Искусство

Five years of lies and hypocrisy. Four activists holding power to account. One book showing how they did it – and why they're not done yet

Led By Donkeys are political artists and activists. This book is an adrenalized journey through five years of resistance against the ineptitudes, corruption and greed committed by those in power in Britain.

Their works include:

* Rebranding disgraced Tory peer Michelle Mone’s yacht as the ‘Pandemic Profiteer’
* Painting the road outside the Russian embassy, Ukrainian blue and yellow
* Creating the iconic National Covid Memorial Wall in London
* Exposing politicians’ hypocrisies by printing their tweets and comments on billboards
* Projecting public sentiment on to the Palace of Westminster, the cliffs of Dover and more

The book tracks the major moments from 2019 to 2024 when Led By Donkeys’ activism captured the public mood with high-profile interventions. Within its pages (amongst other things): the Covid crisis of 2020; Boris Johnson’s struggles with truth and decency; Liz Truss’s battles with maths and markets; the climate crisis we are sleepwalking into; burgeoning corruption in Westminster; the war in Ukraine; a crashed economy; the cost-of-living crisis and much more.

And they’re not done yet: a new government means new policies, new vulnerabilities, new areas of accountability. And with the Reform party on the rise, this is no time to be complacent…

Shot from helicopters and drones, from iPhones and hidden cameras, here are over 200 images and text taking you behind the scenes, including footage seized then returned by the police, professional photography, maps, plans, designs and sketches, and of course the results – newspaper front pages, media response and public reaction.

Taken together, they tell the story of an extraordinary time and tactics to hold the powerful to account.

About the Author:

Led By Donkeys was founded in early 2019 when four friends, motivated by the thermonuclear hypocrisy of our political overlords, started going out at night to paste up guerrilla billboards of the leading Brexiters’ historic tweets. The 18 square metre posters were a phenomenon. With its social media following exploding, Led By Donkeys was suddenly reaching millions of people with every intervention and have continued their work addressing everything from the Covid crisis to corruption in Westminster. Led By Donkeys has mixed art and activism to create some of the most memorable images of our political age.

Lee Miller not only Man Ray’s muse, but above all a professional in her own right

Model, photographer, muse, the first female war correspondent to report the horrors of the concentration camps liberated by American troops, and 20th-century icon. Lee Miller was all this and much more. She went through life with passion and determination and life repaid her with love and friends, but also with pain and posthumous, or at least tardy, acknowledgement.

Through approximately 140 photographs by Lee Miller and Man Ray, some objects d’art, and video documents loaned by Lee Miller Archives and Fondazi one Marconi, this book intends to do justice to this woman as beautiful as she was clever and talented, taking her out of Man Ray’s overpowering shadow. It will reveal a deep but complicated relationship more objectively (Man Ray was first her teacher, then lover, and in the end friend), and document the effect they both had on each other and how it inspired their work.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition in Venice, the volume features texts by the curator, Ami Bouhassane (Miller’s grand-daughter), and Anthony Pen rose (Miller’s son). Moreover it includes portraits by Man Ray of friends and important protagonists of the period (Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí), as well as surrealist shots of Lee Miller in which she seeks to investigate and reveal her soul and torments.

_________

The exhibition offers a portrait of Surrealism through two of its greatest exponents, with more than 100 photographs, art works and new relevant documentation.

In 1929, Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, a young American model often seen in Vogue magazine, arrived in Paris with the intention of becoming a photographer. Uninvited and with no prior introduction, she presented herself at the studio of Man Ray, a noted Surrealist artist and photographer specializing in portraits of contemporary society, insisting that she become his apprentice. The encounter marked the beginning of a life-long relationship. The years 1929-1932 were a time of particularly fertile collaboration, during which the fiercely independent, highly-motivated Lee was soon alternating in the roles of apprentice, photography assistant, lover and muse. After that period, Lee opened and successfully managed her own studio. As prominent figures in avant-garde society (Paris, New York and London) and close friends of such leading artists as Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, and Paul Eluard, Ray and Miller formed part of the early liberal surrealist milieu of the 20s and 30s.

The book, published to complement the Milan exhibition, aims to establish Miller’s remarkable talent as a photographer, setting her on a par with Man Ray, whose work has tended to overshadow hers, and to re-examine the couple’s professional and personal relationship. It also reveals the crucial ways in which Lee Miller inspired Man Ray’s work at that time as well as later, including the discovery of the photographic technique of solarization, which quickly became Ray’s most widely-recognized style. Through a wide selection of their portraits of famous people, their relationship is used as a lens through which to critically re-evaluate and re-interpret the relationship between the two within the Surrealist movement and the broader avant-garde society of Paris between the mid-20s and the late 30s.

About the Author:

Victoria Noel-Johnson is an independent British art historian and curator, specialising in early 20th century European art.

Leonardo da Vinci and Anatomy: all the power and relevance of this great Renaissance mind.

This exhibition catalogue on Leonardo da Vinci the anatomist highlights the mystery of a thought that was both anchored in its time and, combined with a totally new practice (dissection), leading to a new understanding of the nature of life. Da Vinci was not content with a passive description of the human body; he sought to penetrate the secrets of its functioning by first studying the mechanics of humans (bones, muscles, tendons), then the logic of the senses, and finally all the bodily functions (digestion, respiration, blood circulation, reproduction), which made him to use qualitative reasoning.

Contrary to popular belief, Leonardo did not carry out his dissections in secret, but in complete agreement with the political and religious authorities, until his materialistic ideas came into conflict with the pontifical authorities, particularly with regard to embryology.

The originality of the book is to show how Leonardo’s work as an anatomist and his work as a painter are inseparable. The book thus links a work such as the Last Supper in Milan with the knowledge gathered in the medical field.

The book brings together originals or copies of Leonardo’s sheets with objects (anatomical waxes, facsimiles of dissecting instruments), books studied by the artist, interviews with specialists and animated 3D reconstructions.

About the Authors:

Dominique Le Nen is professor at the University of Nantes and orthopedic surgeon.

Pascal Brioist is professor at the University of Tours, historian specialized in Leonardo da Vinci, in la Renaissance and sciences and techniques of the modern era.

Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of the Renaissance humanist ideal, a logical polymath of epic proportions who excelled and had interests not just in art but in invention, anatomy, architecture, engineering, literature, mathematics, music, science, astronomy and more. His oeuvre is astounding and he is rightly famed for his masterpieces of painting such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and his astonishingly technical and graceful drawings. The phenomenon that was Leonardo would not of course have flourished to such an extent had it not been for the patronage and sponsorship of the Medici family, who commissioned a large proportion of the art and architecture of the era and fostered a fertile climate for creativity.

This sumptuous new book offers a broader view of this master artist in the context of this environment, alongside the work of other key artists who benefited from the Medicis, from Brunelleschi through Donatello to Michelangelo and Raphael.

A one-of-a-kind book of pop-ups based on the works of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a painter, architect, inventor and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term ‘Renaissance man’. Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. This book features six meticulously crafted pop-ups of his most famous works: Self portrait; Annunciation; Ornithopter; Virgin & Child; Architecture – an overview of his drawings and designs; and Vitruvian Man.

Contents List:

1. Self portrait 2. Annunciation 3. Ornithopter 4. Virgin & Child 5. Architecture – an overview of his drawings and designs 6. Vitruvian Man

About the Author:

Courtney Watson McCarthy is a noted paper engineer and creator of several pop-up books for Thames & Hudson, including M. C. Escher Pop-Ups, Hokusai Pop-Ups and Dalí Pop-Ups.

A companion volume to 'Lessons in Classical Drawing' that breaks down the foundational skills and techniques of painting in a format that is accessible and manageable for all readers.

With the same direct, easy-to-follow approach of Juliette Aristides's previous books, Lessons in Classical Painting presents aspiring artists with the fundamental skills and tools needed to master painting in the atelier style.

With more than 15 years of experience in ateliers and as an art instructor, Aristides pairs personal examples and insights with theory, assignments and demonstrations for readers, discussions of technical issues and inspirational quotes.

After taking a bird's eye look at painting as a whole, Aristides breaks down painting into big picture topics like:

- grisaille
- temperature
- colour
- composition

Demonstrating how these key subjects can be applied by all painters.

About the Author:

Juliette Aristides studied at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and various private ateliers. She is the author of Classical Painting Atelier, Classical Drawing Atelier, and Lessons in Classical Drawing. She is currently the instructor of the Aristides Classical Atelier at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, Washington. In 2003, Aristides was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant.

In this interactive colouring and activity book, Marion Deuchars takes the broad canvas of ART and fills it with drawings and activities that let you discover what art can be, how it can be made, what it can mean for you and what it has meant for people through the ages.

This book is packed with stimulating ideas to spark your creative imagination. You can complete the Mona Lisa’s smile, or design your own Jackson Pollock-inspired work with a marble, a tray, some paint and paper. There are step-by-step instructions for how to draw a bird and how to give it an expression, as well a foolproof method for drawing a bicycle.

Aimed at children aged eight and older, the emphasis is on fun and making the creation of art a big part of the way you express yourself.

About the Authors:

Author of the best selling Let’s Make Some Great Art series, Marion Deuchars has a globally recognisable illustration style. Her hand-lettering and illustrations have been used on advertising campaigns from Samsung to HP, and her books have won six awards for design and illustration. She is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

The Popstar: When art went Whaam!

American painter Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) pioneered a new epoch in American art, bursting onto a scene dominated by Abstract Expressionism in late 1950s New York and defining a new art vocabulary for a new era.

With his groundbreaking use of industrial production techniques and trivial, quotidian imagery such as cartoons, comic strips, and advertising, Lichtenstein joined contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist to reflect and satirize American mass media and consumer culture. Works such as Look, Mickey! (1961), Drowning Girl (1963), and Whaam! (1963), deployed mass production techniques, particularly Ben-Day dots printing, to create a blow-up effect and pixelated dot style, with which Lichtenstein has become synonymous.

This book provides an essential overview of Lichtenstein s career, tracing his earliest Pop statements through to later brushstroke retorts to Abstract Expressionism and reinterpretations of modern masterpieces. We look at his leading position in mid-century modernism, and the ways in which his works both critique and chronicle 20th-century America.

About the series:

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. 

Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:
- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

What makes a creative life? For an artist like Frances Palmer, it’s knitting all of one’s passions — all of one’s creativity — into the whole of life. And what an inspiration it is.

A renowned potter, an entrepreneur, a gardener, a photographer, a cook, a beekeeper, Palmer has over the course of three decades caught the attention not only of the countless people who collect and use her ceramics but also of designers and design lovers, writers, and fellow artists who marvel at her example. Now, in her first book, she finally tells her story, in her own words and images, distilling from her experiences lessons that will inspire a new generation of makers and entrepreneurs.

Life in the Studio is as beautiful and unexpected as Palmer’s pottery, as breathtakingly colorful as her celebrated dahlias, as intimate as the dinners she hosts in her studio for friends and family. There are insights into making pots — the importance of centering, the discovery that clay has a memory. Strategies for how to turn a passion into a business — the value to be found in collaboration, what it means to persevere, how to develop and stick to a routine that will sustain both enthusiasm and productivity. There are also step-by-step instructions (for throwing her beloved Sabine pot, growing dahlias, building an opulent flower arrangement). Even some of her most tried-and-true recipes.

The result is a portrait of a unique artist and a singularly generous manual on how to live a creative life.

About the Author:

Frances Palmer is a potter known for her handmade functional ceramics. Her pieces have been carried by Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Neue Galerie, Takashimaya, and the Philip Johnson Glass House, and featured in T: The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle Decor, Martha Stewart Living, The World of Interiors, House & Garden, British House & Garden, and Veranda, among other publications. She lives and works in Weston, Connecticut. 

“Roll-up-your-sleeves advice on throwing pottery, growing dahlias, cooking her tried-and-true recipes, and everything in between.”
—Martha Stewart Living

“Suited to any type of creative, offering up lessons on inspiration and creativity that are sure to bring out your inner talent.”
—House Beautiful, Best New Design Books

The Instant Art of Linda McCartney. Unseen Polaroids of family life and beyond

Following her best-selling TASCHEN monograph Life in Photographs, discover a more intimate and highly personal side of Linda McCartney’s photographic work in The Polaroid Diaries.

The collection focuses on McCartney’s distinctive way of seeing the world and her family, through charming and quirky portraits of Paul McCartney and the couple’s four children. We see them pulling faces and in matching pajamas. We see James pouring water on himself, and Mary and Stella playing dress-up. There’s dancing, eating, horse riding, and countless moments of everyday life on their farm in Southern England.

As Paul says in the introduction: “She would just see things. Many of her photos, it’s just that one click. You’ve got to recognise when a great photo is happening in front of you. And then you’ve got to snap it at exactly the right moment… And she did that so many times that it always impressed me.” The Polaroid Diaries curates more than 200 of these “right” moments from the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, along with a foreword by Chrissie Hynde and an essay by art critic Ekow Eshun.

The book also features luminous landscapes across Scotland and Arizona, as well as the odd celebrity, as the likes of Steve McQueen and Adam Ant wander into the frame. Other pictures attest to her love of animals, with compassionate images of cats, lambs, horses, and hens. It’s a pre-Instagram glimpse into the life of an extraordinary family, a celebration of Linda’s legacy as a fiercely committed artist and of the instant magic of Polaroid film.

Also available in a signed Collector’s Edition and in two limited Art Editions, each with a print numbered and signed by Paul McCartney.

The photographer:

Linda McCartney (née Eastman) was born in New York in 1941. She took a photo course with Hazel Archer and studied art history at the University of Arizona before settling in New York City, where she began her photo career shooting rock portraits. Outside of her photography, which has been exhibited in over 50 galleries worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the International Center of Photography, New York, Linda McCartney is known for her passionate animal rights activism and her staunch vegetarianism. She wrote cookbooks and founded her own brand of frozen vegetarian meals, all the while raising a family, continuing to take photographs, and participating as a Wings band member alongside Paul McCartney. She died in 1998 at the age of 56.

The author:

Ekow Eshun is a London-based writer, critic, and curator. He is Chairman of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, overseeing the most prestigious public art program in the U.K., and the former Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. His writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Granta, Vogue, Aperture, and Wired. He is the author of Black Gold of the Sun, which was nominated for the Orwell Prize, and the editor of Africa Modern: Creating the Contemporary Art of a Continent.

The editor:

Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. His TASCHEN titles include: Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, both London and New York Portrait of a City books, Andy Warhol. Polaroids, The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Football in the 1970s, the National Geographic editions, and The David Bailey SUMO.

By your own hand, prints to be proud of in no time at all.

Nick Morley is a seasoned expert at guiding aspiring printmakers through their first projects, and this accessible book distils his knowledge into friendly step-by-step projects, each chosen to demonstrate a particular skill, and illustrated with clear photography.

With templates accompanying each project making it easy to get started, the reader will quickly find themselves growing in confidence and skill.

About the Author:

Nick Morley (aka Linocutboy) has been a professional linocut artist for more than two decades; his clients include food and drink brands, many magazines, and publishers including Penguin, Faber, Bloomsbury and the Folio Society. Alongside his illustration work he also teaches printing, and has written one instructional book. He lives and works in Margate, UK.

Surprising spatial experiences for all senses: This book features art, interior design, architecture, and striking scenography that leave lasting impressions

The foundation of a meaningful relationship between artist and audience, museum and visitor, or brand and customer is based on an unforgettable experience. Yet these groups of people are more discerning than ever before: They want a personalized moment, to be informed and entertained, and above all, to be inspired. 

Liquid Spaces features a wide spectrum of unconventional environments ranging from experimental installations to complex productions. Each one of these spaces plays with the boundaries of human perception, triggering sensual encounters that activate the senses in surprising ways.

Artists, scenographers, and architects, as well as interior and exhibition designers, create these extraordinary situations. Liquid Spaces presents the most innovative concepts, most radical designers, and most demanding clients.

A major new survey that offers fresh insights on Pablo Picasso's artworks, written by a leading authority on the master.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. This important new monograph, released to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the artist's death, presents Picasso's unparalleled achievements in all media: painting, sculpture, drawing and prints. Art historian and curator Pepe Karmel offers fresh analysis of this great master for a 21st-century audience, considering Picasso's work through the lens of art rather than biography. He demonstrates how Picasso's style, evolving over the course of seven decades, introduced visual languages and narratives that transformed modern art.

Arranged chronologically by themes and movements, Looking at Picasso is profusely illustrated with renowned paintings, such as the provocative Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and his monumental Guernica, protesting the horror of war; these are accompanied by numerous lesser-known works, including Picasso's daring sculptures and his animated reinterpretation of Velazquez's 17th-century masterpiece Las Meninas.

This engaging book will appeal to museum-goers curious to learn more about Picasso's career and anyone interested in modern art.

About the Author:

Pepe Karmel is Associate Professor at the department of Art History, New York University. He is the author of Picasso and the Invention of Cubism (2003) and Abstract Art: A Global History (2020), and has written widely on art for museum catalogues, as well as the New York Times, Art in America and other publications. He has also curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions, including 'Jackson Pollock' (MoMA, 1998) and 'Dialogues with Picasso' (Museo Picasso Malaga, 2020). Karmel is the Associate Curator of Museo Picasso Malaga.

Contents List:

Preface
1. Life
2. Symbolism
3. Cubism
4. Surrealism
5. War and Peace
Notes

Painter Prince of the Renaissance

Lucas Cranach the Elder created around 500 works during his lifetime. With his portraits of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchton and as court painter to Frederick the Wise, he became one of the most sought-after painters of the Reformation. At the same time, Cranach was the first to translate the Italian Renaissance tradition of the life-size nude into art north of the Alps; his lascivious, barely veiled depiction of Venus, the goddess of love, bears witness to this. On the occasion of the large Cranach exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Austrian writer Teresa Präauer explores the work of this busy prince of painters from A to Z. She focuses not only on Cranach's art, but also on the society that surrounded him, the subjects he painted, and the events that shaped his development.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) was one of the most prolific painters, graphic artists and letterpress printers of the German Renaissance. Court painter at the court of the Elector of Saxony since 1505, he devoted himself not only to religious works but also to mythological themes and numerous portraits.

The writer  Teresa Präauer (*1979) studied German literature in Salzburg and Berlin as well as art at Mozarteum Salzburg. She writes novels, essays, and columns. In her tragic-comical artist novel Johnny und Jean (Wallstein, 2016), the painter Cranach played a crucial role.

A significant publication of original writing on Lucian Freud, including interviews with leading contemporary artists, marking the 100th anniversary of his birth

Lucian Freud (1922–2011) was one of the greatest figurative painters of the twentieth century. With an unflinching eye and an uncompromising commitment to his work, he created masterpieces that continue to inspire contemporary artists to the present day.

Spanning nearly 70 years, Freud’s career has often been overshadowed by his biography and celebrity. This book re-examines his paintings through a broad series of original approaches. Texts by a variety of rising and established international writers explore topics ranging from the compositional echoes of old master paintings in Freud’s works, to the contextualization of his practice within the class struggles of 1980s Britain. Throughout the book, leading contemporary painters such as Tracey Emin and Chantal Joffe give insightful testimony to the relevance of Freud today.

Marking the 100th anniversary of Freud’s birth, this publication accompanies the first major exhibition of his work in 10 years. Presenting fresh perspectives on his paintings, it introduces Freud to a new generation of scholars and enthusiasts – demonstrating his lasting international importance.

Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press 

Exhibition Schedule:

The National Gallery, London
October 1, 2022–January 22, 2023

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
February 14–June 18, 2023

About the Author:

Daniel F. Herrmann is Curator of Modern & Contemporary Projects at the National Gallery, London.