Искусство

The best time of the year: The Booze & Vinyl series (nearly 200,000 copies in print) finds its holiday cheer in this irresistible new volume mixing beloved Christmas albums with merry drink pairings.

Celebrate the holidays with this merry collection of beloved Christmas albums paired with mood-setting cocktails-a companion to the bestselling listening party guide, Booze & Vinyl.

Whether you're planning your finest Ugly Christmas Sweater Party or spending a quiet evening by the stocking-lined fireside at home, make the season bright with this guide to 40 favorite holiday albums from the 1940s to the present. Each entry features liner notes on the album and accompanying boozy beverage recipes that complement the music or connect the drink to the artist. Select holiday food recipes throughout complete the experience.

Among the artist albums featured are: Johnny Mathis, the Beach Boys, Elvis, the Jackson 5, Mariah Carey, Bob Dylan, Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani, Sia, Dolly Parton, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Vince Guaraldi, Barbara Streisand, Willie Nelson, Boyz II Men, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Michael Bublé, and John Legend.

About the Author:

André Darlington is the author of Bar Menu and Booze Cruise, among many other food and drink titles, as well as the co-author of Booze & Vinyl, The New Cocktail Hour, and Movie Night Menus. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

In this era of Vinyl revival, celebrate some of the greatest covers of the last 70 years, such as the Beatles’ ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ or Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, alongside entertaining and informative text. 

This great little book will make an ideal gift for any music aficionado or art and design enthusiast.

An entirely fresh perspective on the history of western art that uses timelines to trace cultural development from prehistory to the present

Most surveys of the history of art come neatly packaged. They are divided up into historic periods, artistic schools and movements, and the careers of individual painters. They may make the subject appear more manageable, but they are oversimplifications. In reality, movements and careers overlapped and intertwined, reacting to events in the world around them.

A Chronology of Art places the genuine developments of the art world into sharp focus. By prioritizing a purely chronological approach and side-stepping the clichés of conventional, academic pigeonholes, it presents an entirely fresh perspective on the subject. The book is structured around a central timeline, which features lavish illustrations of paintings, together with commentaries, and additional information about the social, political and cultural events of the period. The text is divided into four historical sections, becoming more detailed as it nears the present. From 1800 onward, each spread covers a five-year span, which is far more comprehensive than other surveys of this kind. The chronological spreads are interwoven with lively ‘In Focus’ features, highlighting social, stylistic and technical developments.

About the Author:

Iain Zaczek writes widely on art and design. His many books include: The Impressionists; Essential Art Deco; Celtic Art and Design; and The Art of Illuminated Manuscripts. He was also a contributing author to Art: The Definitive Visual Guide.

The stresses of the digital world mean that it's more important than ever to engage with the natural world. The sky is the most dramatic and evocative aspect of nature and looking up at the clouds is always good for the soul. Ever-changing and ephemeral, clouds reflect the shifting moods of the atmosphere in limitless compositions and combinations.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney started the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2005. Since then, he's been encouraging people to 'look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds.' Membership to the Society now includes over 50k cloud spotters. Together, they capture and share the most remarkable skies, from sublime thunderstorms and perfect sunsets to hilarious object shaped clouds.

A Cloud A Day is a beautifully illustrated book containing 365 skies selected by the Cloud Appreciation Society. There are photographs by sky enthusiasts around the world, satellite images and photographs of clouds in space, as well as skies depicted by great artists over the centuries. The clouds are accompanied by enlightening explanations, fascinating snippets of cloud science, poetry and uplifting quotations.

The perfect dip-in-and-out book for anyone who wants to de-stress and reconnect with nature, A Cloud A Day will inspire you to open your eyes to the everyday beauty above and to spend a moment each day with your head in the clouds.

An authoritative and concise history of witchcraft from the ancient world up to the present day

Witchcraft has always been a fluid and intriguing belief system that has enchanted and sometimes terrified humanity. For over forty years, A History of Witchcraft has provided the authoritative history of witchery and the occult. Jeffrey Russell explores the definition of witchcraft in its many diverse forms, from the worship of the Greek goddess of magic, Hecate, through the medieval witch-crazes to the development of modern witchcraft in the early 20th century. Brooks Alexander analyses the development of neopaganism to the present day, charting the dissemination of witchcraft through modern media and the tensions that arise when a secretive cult becomes an open and recognized religion.

Whether or not one believes in the powers of witchcraft, one must believe in the existence of witches.

Contents List:

Introduction: What is a witch?
PART I: SORCERY AND HISTORICAL WITCHCRAFT
1 Sorcery
2 The roots of European witchcraft
3 Witchcraft, heresy, and inquisition
4 The witch-craze on the continent of Europe
5 Witchcraft in Britain and America
6 Witchcraft and society
7 The decline of witchcraft
PART II: MODERN WITCHCRAFT
8 Survivals and revivals
9 Neopagan witchcraft: the sources
10 Neopagan witchcraft: the movement
11 The role of witchcraft

About the Author:

Jeffrey B. Russell (1934–2023) was an American historian of medieval Europe and religious studies scholar. Brooks Alexander is author of Witchcraft Goes Mainstream and has written numerous articles on witchcraft, neo-paganism and other new religious movements.

A new way of appreciating art that puts the artwork front and centre, brought to us by one of the freshest and most exciting voices in cultural criticism

What makes great art great? Why do some works pulse in the imagination, generation after generation, century after century? From Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Picasso’s Guernica, some paintings and sculptures have become so famous, so much a part of who we are, that we no longer really look at them. We take their greatness for granted; our eyes have become near-obsolete. We need a new way of seeing.

Unsatisfied with traditional interpretations of masterpieces, which are so often interested only in learning about art, and not from it, Kelly Grovier combed the surface of revered works from the Terracotta Army to Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits, in a quest to find the key to their lasting power to move and delight us. He discovered that every truly great work is hardwired with an underappreciated detail that ignites it from deep within.

Stepping away from biography, style and the chronology of ‘isms’ that preoccupies most art history, Grovier tells a new story in which we learn from the artworks, not just about them.

Contents List:

Introduction: A Touch of Strangeness

Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions (c. 645–635 BC)
Parthenon Sculptures (c. 444 BC)
Terracotta Army of the First Qin Emperor (c. 210 BC)
Villa of the Mysteries murals (c. 60–50 BC)
Laocoön and his Sons (c. 27 BC–AD 68)
Trajan’s Column (AD 113), Apollodorus of Damascus
The Book of Kells (c. AD 800)
Travellers among Mountains and Streams (c. 1000), Fan K’uan
Bayeux Tapestry (c. 1077 or after)
The Universal Man (c. 1165), Hildegard of Bingen
The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c. 1427), Masaccio
Ghent Altarpiece (1430–32), Jan van Eyck
The Descent from the Cross (1430–32), Rogier van der Weyden
The Annunciation (c. 1438–47), Fra Angelico
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1480), Andrea Mantegna
The Birth of Venus (c. 1482–85), Sandro Botticelli
Mona Lisa (c. 1503–6), Leonardo da Vinci
The Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–10), Hieronymus Bosch
Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes (1508–12), Michelangelo
The School of Athens (1510–11), Raphael
Isenheim Altarpiece (1512–16), Matthias Grünewald
Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23), Titian
Self-Portrait (1548), Catharina van Hemessen
Crucifixion (1565–87), Tintoretto
The Supper at Emmaus (1601), Caravaggio
The Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647–52), Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Las Meninas (1656), Diego Velázquez
Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665), Johannes Vermeer
Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665–69), Rembrandt van Rijn
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), Joseph Wright of Derby
The Nightmare (1781), Henry Fuseli
The Third of May 1808 (1814), Francisco Goya
The Hay Wain (1821), John Constable
Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844), J. M. W. Turner
Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother) (1871), James Abbott
McNeill Whistler
The Thinker (1880–1904), Auguste Rodin
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), Édouard Manet
Bathers at Asnières (1884), Georges Seurat
The Scream (1893), Edvard Munch
The Large Bathers (1900–6), Paul Cézanne
Group IV, No. 7, Adulthood (1907), Hilma af Klint
The Kiss (1907), Gustav Klimt
Dance (1909–10), Henri Matisse
Water Lilies (1914–26), Claude Monet
Fountain (1917), Marcel Duchamp
American Gothic (1930), Grant Wood
The Persistence of Memory (1931), Salvador Dalí
Guernica (1937), Pablo Picasso
L’Égypte de Mlle Cléo de Mérode: cours élémentaire d’histoire naturelle (1940), Joseph Cornell
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), Frida Kahlo
One: Number 31 (1950), Jackson Pollock
Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953), Francis Bacon
Brillo Boxes (1964), Andy Warhol
Backs and Fronts (1981), Sean Scully
Betty (1988), Gerhard Richter
Maman (1999), Louise Bourgeois
The Artist is Present (2010), Marina Abramovic

Sources and Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Picture Credits
Index

About the Author:

Kelly Grovier is a feature writer for BBC Culture and the author of several acclaimed studies of art, including 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age, Art Since 1989 and On the Line, all published by Thames & Hudson. His writings have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the RA Magazine and Wired magazine. His history of London’s Newgate Prison, The Gaol, was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’. He is co-founder of the scholarly journal European Romantic Review.

Everything you always wanted to know about the art market but were afraid to ask. A pioneering collector explains how to use passion and intuition to acquire key pieces or build a collection — even on a limited budget.

Today’s art market is incredibly dynamic. There are so many compelling works, shows, and exhibitions to choose from. Because there is so much to discover and see, many people are getting interested in collecting art. But since it’s impossible to keep track of all developments, becoming an art collector is not easy.

A Poor Collector’s Guide to Buying Great Art provides relief and offers sound advice to those who want to buy art but don’t know how or where to do it. They might have preferences in terms of styles or techniques, but they’re not familiar with how the buying process works. Perhaps they already have specific pieces in mind but don’t yet trust the rules of the art market — if such rules actually exist. What does someone actually need to know to prevent their personal tastes from leading them to make the wrong investment decisions?

This book illuminates all aspects of becoming an expert at buying art that one will enjoy for many years, such as how to get started, how to take one’s tastes seriously, how to do a targeted search for pieces, how to learn to appraise prices, and how to find trustworthy partners.

About the Author:

In 1990, the Norwegian lawyer and writer Erling Kagge was half of the 2-man expedition that was the first ever to reach the North Pole unsupported (the other half was his countryman Børge Ousland). In 1992–93, he became the first person to walk to the South Pole alone, and, in 1994, Kagge summited Mount Everest, thus becoming the first person to complete the “Three Poles Challenge.” Today, he runs a publishing business in Olso called Kagge Forlag, collects international contemporary art and Russian icons, and serves on the board of the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. He wrote the preface for our previous release The Outsiders.

This book presents and explores the Waddesdon Bequest, the name given to the Kunstkammer or cabinet collection of Renaissance treasures which was bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, MP in 1898. The Bequest is named after Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, a fairy tale French chateau built by Baron Ferdinand from 1874 – 83, where the collection was housed during his lifetime. As a major Jewish banking family, the Rothschilds were the greatest collectors of the nineteenth century, seeking not only the finest craftsmanship in their treasures, but also demonstrating great discernment and a keen sense of historical importance in selecting them. Baron Ferdinand’s aim, often working in rivalry with his cousins, was to possess a special room filled with splendid, precious and intricate objects in the tradition of European courts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was understood at the time that a collection of this quality could never be formed again, given the rarity and expense of the pieces, and the problems of faking and forgery of just this kind of material.

The book will unlock the history and romance of this glorious collection through its exploration of some of its greatest treasures and the stories they tell. It will introduce makers and patrons, virtuoso craftsmanship, faking and the history of collecting from the late medieval to modern periods, as told through the objects. Treasures discussed will include masterpieces of goldsmiths’ work in silver; jewellery; hardstones and engraved rock crystal; astonishing microcarvings in boxwood, painted enamel, ceramic and glass; arms and armour and ‘curosities’: exotic treasures incorporating ostrich eggs, Seychelles nut, amber or nautilus shell. Scholarly catalogues have appeared for parts of this splendid collection but this book will open up the Bequest for the general reader. By looking at individual objects in detail, and drawing on new photography and research, the book will enable readers to see and understand the objects in a completely different light.

About the Author:

Dora Thornton is Curator of Renaissance Europe and Curator of the Waddesdon Bequest at the British Museum. She curated the new permanent gallery, funded by the Rothschild Foundation, for the Waddesdon Bequest, a Rothschild Kunstkammer in the British Museum. Her most recent book, A Rothschild Renaissance, was published to accompany the gallery opening in June 2015.

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A beautiful and sumptuously illustrated book that presents the highlights of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s Renaissance court treasures.

This book explores the Waddesdon Bequest, the name given to the Kunstkamer, or cabinet collection of Renaissance treasures which was bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild MP in 1898.

The Bequest is named after Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, a fairy-tale French chateau built by Baron Ferdinand from 1874-83, where the collection was housed during his lifetime.

It was understood at the time that a collection of this quality could never be formed again, given the rarity and expense of the pieces, and the problems of faking and forgery of just this kind of material.

This book will unlock the history and romance of this glorious collection through its exploration of some of its greatest treasures and the stories they tell. It will introduce makers and patrons, virtuoso craftsmanship, faking and the history of collecting from the late medieval to modern periods, as told through the objects. Scholarly catalogues have appeared for parts of this splendid collection, but this book will open up the Bequest for the general reader.

By looking at individual objects in detail, and drawing on new photography and research, the book will enable readers to see and understand the objects in a completely different light.

‘Christmas brings the indestructibility of hope in times of the greatest hopelessness. As long as we celebrate this holiday, we can neither be defeated nor destroyed. This is the message that Ukraine is trying to convey to the world. And this is what our book is about.’

From Christmas music to gifts and food, as well as a look back through the country's rich and troubled history through the perspective of the festive season, this beautifully illustrated and powerful book introduces readers to Ukraine's unique Christmas traditions. In a country where East and West meet, this is a fascinating and unmissable guide to capturing the spirit of one of the most important times of year and a powerful reminder of the strength of holding on to your culture and beliefs, even as others try to take everything from you.

'Sings of the independence of Ukraine yet ensures you feel the connecting hand of warmth, understanding, and friendship ... So profoundly meaningful and powerful, A Ukrainian Christmas ensures that you never lose sight of the true meaning of these festivities and how important they are in the lives of so many people' - LOVEREADING

'Richly illustrated ... from Christmas music to gifts and food, it introduces readers to festive traditions followed in Ukraine' - Caroline Sanderson, THE BOOKSELLER

The Publisher is making a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal on publication of this book.

About the Author:

Yaroslav Hrytsak is a Ukrainian historian and public intellectual. Professor of the Ukrainian Catholic University and Honorary Professor of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Professor Hrytsak has taught at Columbia and Harvard Universities and was a guest lecturer at the Central European University in Budapest. He is the author of many historical books, including several bestsellers and the recipient of numerous national and international awards and has written opinion pieces for many publications including The Times, the New York Times and Time Magazine. Nadiyka Gerbish is a Ukrainian writer, podcaster, and Riggins Rights Management European rights director. She has written nineteen books, many of which have become bestsellers and have won numerous awards. A number of Nadiyka's children's books are studied in schools in Ukraine and have been published in braille and audiobook.

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Пролистать книгу A Ukrainian Christmas на Google Books.

Since its first publication, this book has been hailed as the most up-to-date and wide-ranging history of art ever published in a single volume. Presenting art history as an essential part of the development of humankind, it offers an authoritative, balanced and enlightening account, ranging from a statuette carved in central Europe some 30,000 years ago to the digital, video and installation art of the new millennium. The volume covers painting, mosaic, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, architecture and photography. Textiles, coins, pottery, enamels, gold and silver are also included. The scope is international, encompassing the arts of Asia, Africa and Oceania as well as Europe and the Americas.

This Revised Seventh Edition expands the original coverage by embracing new developments in archaeology and art historical research, and in particular contemporary art historian Michael Archer has greatly expanded the authors’ discussion of the art world over the past two decades, providing a new perspective on the latest developments shaping our cultural history.

The insight, elegance and fluency that the authors bring to their text are complemented by 1459 superb illustrations, many of which are now in colour. These images, together with the numerous maps and architectural plans, have been chosen to represent the most significant chronological, regional and individual styles of artistic expression.

Contents:

1. Before History
2. The Early Civilizations
3. Development Across the Continents
4. The Greeks and Their Neighbours
5. Hellenistic and Roman Art
6. Buddhism. Hinduism and the Arts of South and East Asia
7. Early Christian and Byzantine Art
8. Early Islamic Art
9. Medieval Christendom
10. The Fifteenth Century in Europe
11. The Sixteenth Century in Europe
12. The Americas, Africa and Asia
13. The Seventeenth Century in Europe
14. Enlightenment and Liberty
15. Romanticism to Realism
16. Eastern Traditions
17. Impressionism to Post-Impressionism
18. Indigenous Arts of Africa, the Americas, Australia and Oceania
19. Art from 1900 to 1919
20. Between the Two World
21. Post-War to Post-Modern
22. Into the Third Millennium

About the Author:

John Fleming founded and edited with Hugh Honour the Pelican 'Style and Civilization' series. He died on 29 May 2001. Hugh Honour is one of the leading art historians of the 20th century. He is co-author with Nikolaus Pevsner and John Fleming of The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture.

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Пролистать книгу A World History of Art (Revised 7th edition) на Google Books

Featuring 365 great Impressionist paintings, this book offers a beautiful and inspiring way to celebrate art every day of the year

A perfect gift for art lovers or anyone interested in Impressionism, this collection of 365 pictures gathers the best of the genre's masterpieces from around the world. Covering a wide range of artists and countries associated with the movement, the book features double-page spreads with an Impressionist painting on one side and a blank page on the other, offering space for notes and reminders of significant events. The vibrant colors and dynamic brush strokes that characterize Impressionist art come fully to life in these beautifully reproduced pictures. Each day readers will encounter renowned works by Renoir, Gauguin, Degas, Cezanne, Monet, and Seurat as well as paintings by lesser-known practitioners such as Lovis Corinth, Childe Hassam, Lesser Ury, Peder Severin Kroyer, and Dame Laura Knight. Perfect for work, home, or studio this beautiful volume will brighten any room and offer inspiration every day.

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Пролистать книгу A Year in Impressionism на сайте издательства.

A year-long journey through the contemporary art world, uncovering the working lives of artists, curators, gallerists and critics, and revealing what they really do

Over the last few decades the contemporary art world has become more globalized and more visible than ever before – and yet in many ways it remains closed and obscure. What actually happens behind the doors of a contemporary artist’s studio? At an auction house before a major sale? In the vaults of an art storage unit? How can art museums keep up with Instagram – and why does everyone seem to hate art fairs?

Join curator, writer and art historian Matthew Israel on a year-long journey through the contemporary art world. From Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Venice, Basel, Paris and New York, from biennials in summer to auction houses in autumn, Israel reveals the joys and anxieties of this sometimes baffling, often intimidating field. Blending an insider’s knowledge with in-depth profiles, interviews with key art-world figures and a keen ear for an anecdote, A Year in the Art World is a compelling, generous companion for any art-lover curious about how art is being made, valued, sold, cared for and looked at today.

Contents List:

Part I: WINTER – 1. A Studio Visit; 2. Fabricators; 3. Gallery Directors • PART II: SPRING – 4. Museum Directors; 5. Art Fairs; 6. Artist Estates; 7. Art Writers • PART III: SUMMER – 8. Curators; 9. Biennials; 10. Art Schools; 11. Art Online • PART IV: FALL – 12. Art Advisors; 13. Auctions; 14. Conservators; 15. Storage, Shipping and Handling

About the Author:

Matthew Israel is a curator, writer and art historian based in New York. He has worked with galleries including Matthew Marks and Gagosian, managed major artist estates and foundations, written widely for the international art press, and spoken internationally about contemporary art and the art world. He received a PhD in History of Art and Archaeology from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and was Head Curator of Artsy. His most recent book is The Big Picture: Contemporary Art in 10 Works by 10 Artists.

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 before – and yet in many ways it remains closed and obscure. What actually happens behind the doors of a contemporary artist’s studio? At an auction house before a major sale? In the vaults of an art storage unit? How can art museums keep up with Instagram – and why does everyone seem to hate art fairs?

Join curator, writer and art historian Matthew Israel on a year-long journey through the contemporary art world. From Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Venice, Basel, Paris and New York, from biennials in summer to auction houses in autumn, Israel reveals the joys and anxieties of this sometimes baffling, often intimidating field. Blending an insider’s knowledge with in-depth profiles, interviews with key art-world figures and a keen ear for an anecdote, A Year in the Art World is a compelling, generous companion for any art-lover curious about how art is being made, valued, sold, cared for and looked at today.

About the Author:

Matthew Israel is a curator, writer and Ph.D. art historian. From 2021 to 2023 he was Commissions Lead at Open Arts at Meta. From 2019 until 2021, Matthew was Co-Founder and Chief Curator of Artful; between 2011 and 2019, he was the founding Director of The Art Genome Project at Artsy and later its Head Curator. He is the author of severally critically acclaimed books on contemporary art, including Kill for Peace: American Artists Against the Vietnam War (2013) and The Big Picture: Contemporary Art in 10 Works by 10 Artists (2017).

Contents List:
Part I: Winter
1. A Studio Visit
2. Fabricators
3. Gallery Directors
Part II: Spring
4. Museum Directors
5. Art Fairs
6. Artist Estates
7. Art Writers
Part III: Summer
8. Curators
9. Biennials
10. Art Schools
11. Art Online
Part IV: Fall
12. Art Advisors
13. Auctions
14. Conservators
15. Storage, Shipping and Handling

In recent years David Hockney has returned to England to paint the landscape of his childhood. East Yorkshire’s stern hillscapes, craggy drystone walls and endless windswept moors make for a stimulating muse, and Hockney’s work captures the character of this scenery with expert precision.

Although his passionate interest in new technologies has led Hockney to develop a virtuoso drawing technique on an iPad, he is still regularly accompanied by a trusty sketchbook. This invaluable tool allows him to work quickly, capturing the changing light and the fleeting effects of the weather. Executed in watercolour and ink, these panoramic scenes have the spatial complexity of finished paintings: the broad sweep of sky or road, the patchwork tapestry of land. Yet unlike a painting completed in the studio, far-removed from the landscape that inspired it, these sketches convey the immediacy of Hockney’s impressions. And as indicated by views down village streets and across kitchen tables, his rooted local knowledge and fondness for the area around the East Yorkshire Wolds always shines through.

If you know the region, the location of these sketches is unmistakable. If you don’t, its features will come to life in these pages, animated by Hockney’s incomparable skill.

_An exploration of the vivid watercolour and ink sketches that Hockney made in his home county, Yorkshire
_Features a range of stunning images, some with vast, panoramic spans and others depicting rooted, familiar locations
_A short but enlightening insight into Hockney's creative process

About the Author:

David Hockney CH RA is an internationally acclaimed artist. He studied at Bradford School of Art from 1953 to 1957 and at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1959 to 1962. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1963, and now splits his time between America and East Yorkshire, where he grew up.

A festival of Indian folk rituals and costumes bursting with colour, captured by renowned photographer Charles Fréger, the creator of a distinctive and powerful new genre of portrait photography.

Internationally renowned photographer Charles Fréger continues to explore global traditions and cultures, by celebrating the powerful visual aspects of Indian folk culture and religious ritual. India is the home to a myriad of local traditions, legends and religions, each with their own festivals, rites and rituals. Celebrations burst with vivid colours and often wildly exuberant costumes, some representing gods and goddesses, others legendary heroes from Sanskrit epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

In Charles Fréger’s photographs, those who honour local cultural traditions are represented in single or group portraits, represented against carefully chosen landscapes and backdrops, from the heart of festivals and celebrations. Fréger’s unmistakable style of portraiture allows us to admire the complexity of their adornments – masks and headdresses, costumes and body paint – and to consider the abundance of imagination that expresses India’s countless stories and characters, both human and divine.

This spectacular gathering of warrior figures, deities, musicians, tigers, mahouts, epic characters and their avatars is accompanied by texts setting the huge variety of eclectic costumes in context, and describing the local festivals and rituals. This compelling sequence of new portraits will enthral those with an interest in folk traditions, as well as the followers of this internationally acclaimed photographer.

About the Authors:

Charles Fréger is a photographer based in Rouen, France. Internationally acclaimed for his subtle and poetic portraiture, he has devoted himself to the representation of social groups. Previous books include Portraits in Lace: Breton Women (2015), Yokainoshima: Island of Monsters (2016) and Cimarron: Freedom and Masquerade (2019), all published by Thames & Hudson. Anuradha Roy is a novelist and journalist living in northeast India. Catherine Clément is a philosopher, critic and feminist.