Книги по истории искусства

Symbols are all around us – some mysterious, some timeless, some arcane and some prosaic. But what are their origins? What does the infinity symbol really signify? Do you understand yin and yang? And why is the swastika really a good luck sign?
This enticing gift book explores the world of classic symbols and signs, revealing the deep meaning and often quirky history behind each one. From the ouroboros and the ankh to the menorah, caduceus and astrological signs, the book ranges widely across the world’s most recognised symbols.

With one symbol per page, accompanied by an explanation and history, and printed on high-quality paper with a special binding, Classic Symbols is a unique and attractive book that will appeal to a broad range of readers, both as a gift and as a source for tattoo designs and other creative projects.

About the Author:

Michael Kerrigan was educated at St. Edward’s College and University College, Oxford, England. He is the author of The History of Death, A Dark History: The Roman Emperors, Ancients In Their Own Words, World War II Plans That Never Happened, and American Presidents: A Dark History. He is a columnist, book reviewer, and feature writer for publications including the Scotsman and the Times Literary Supplement. Michael Kerrigan lives with his family in Edinburgh.

A groundbreaking, award-winning analysis of colour in Western culture, from the ancient Greeks to the late twentieth century by one of the most foremost authors on the subject.

What does the language of colour tell us? Where does one colour begin and another end? Is it a radiant visual stimulus, an intangible function of light, or a material substance to be moulded and arrayed? Colour is fundamental to art, yet so diverse that it has hardly ever been studied in a comprehensive way. Art historian John Gage considers every conceivable aspect of the subject in this groundbreaking analysis of colour in Western culture, from the ancient Greeks to the late twentieth century.

Gage describes the first theories of colour, articulated by Greek philosophers, and subsequent attempts by the Romans and their Renaissance disciples to organize it systematically or endow it with symbolic power. He unfolds its religious significance and its use in heraldry, as well as how Renaissance artists approached colour with the help of alchemists. He explores the analysis of the spectrum undertaken by Newton and continued in the nineteenth century by artists such as Seurat, traces the influence of Goethe's colour theory, and considers the extraordinary theories and practices that attempted to unite colour and music, or make colour into an entirely abstract language of its own.

The first-ever undertaking to suggest answers to many perennial questions about the role of colour in Western art and thought, this study throws fresh light on the hidden meanings of many familiar masterpieces.

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John Gage’s groundbreaking analysis of colour has been transforming our perceptions for more than three decades. Indispensable to anyone fascinated by art, psychology and history, this remarkable book considers every conceivable aspect of colour theory in Western culture.

From Roman symbolism to Bauhaus and beyond, this new edition, now featuring full colour illustrations throughout, will continue to serve as a pillar of visual arts scholarship.

About the Author:

John Gage was an acknowledged international authority on the history of art and colour, and wrote many books on the subject, including Colour and Meaning, Colour in Art and the award-winning Colour and Culture, all published by Thames & Hudson. He was Head of the Department of History of Art at Cambridge University from 1992 to 1995.

Visually stunning, entertaining and intriguing, this book explores humankind’s enduring curiosity about the animal world.Visually stunning, entertaining and intriguing, this book explores humankind’s enduring curiosity about the animal world.

The Camelopard, The Monstrous Pig, The Famous Porcupine, Dürer’s Rhinoceros: these are but a few of the beautiful and bizarre creatures that feature in this delightful book. In the visual arts of the fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries in Europe, animals were understood in relation to the human world, whether as animals of the farm, estate or household, beasts of burden or as diversions in menageries and travelling shows. At the same time, rapidly increasing investigation of the natural world engaged artists in the problems of accurate representation: prints were particularly important in distributing natural historical information (or misinformation) across a wide, international audience. This beautifully illustrated book explores perceptions of the natural world as seen through the eyes of imaginative artists: works by Goya, Stubbs and Bewick stand alongside prints by lesser-known artists, each selected for its graphic strength, charm and narrative interest. Featured are natural history studies, masterpieces from the British Museum's exceptional collection of classical old master prints, book illustrations, satires and popular prints to beautifully capture the diversity and appeal of early modern print culture. Visually stunning, entertaining and intriguing, this book explores humankind’s enduring curiosity about the animal world.

About the Author:

Alison E. Wright is a curator of prints and drawings at the British Museum and curator of the Museum’s touring exhibition Curious beasts: animal prints from Dürer to Goya.

This thought-provoking book re-evaluates the work of one of the most notorious, provocative and visually influential artists of the twentieth century. Robert Radford traces Salvador Dali's career from the crucial early years in Spain, to membership of the Surrealist group in 1930s Paris, and then on to New York and Hollywood, where his purposefully extravagant behaviour made him a media star. The influential figures in his life - Federico Garcia Lorca, Luis Buñuel and his wife Gala - are introduced as the book explores Dali's diverse work as painter, writer, film-maker, illustrator, jewellery designer, myth-maker and performance artist.

About the Author:

Well known as a lecturer, writer and exhibition curator, Robert Radford taught Art History for many years at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

While the early 20th century was rich with creative energy, no one brought theatre and dance to the forefront of culture quite like Sergei Diaghilev did with his extraordinary Ballets Russes. From 1909 to 1929, the impresario attracted the involvement of artists and designers (Picasso, Matisse, Chanel), composers (Stravinsky), dancers (Nijinsky and Massine), and even a young George Balanchine. Now, this major book, originally published to accompany a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, that travelled to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, examines the origins, development, and long-term influence of the Ballets Russes, the company that showcased artistic collaboration at its finest and revolutionized ballet for all time.

About the Author:

Jane Pritchard is curator of dance at the V&A. 

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Каталог представляет историю «Русских балетных сезонов» во всём богатстве красок и деталей. Его структура отвечает хронологической последовательности и этапам развития «Русских Балетов». Каждый этап соответствовал подготовке и премьере очередного балета и знаменовался привлечением к работе над постановками всё новых именитых художников и дизайнеров, Невероятно динамичный, «Русский балет» Дягилева нередко претерпевал полную смену направления – от классики к ориентализму, от восточного направления к русской теме и, наконец к авангардным постановкам.

Этот увлекательный процесс смены этапов и направлений отражен в каталоге с использованием богатого иллюстративного материала, представлены произведения знаменитых французских и российских художников XX в: Л. Бакста, А.Бенуа, Н.Гончаровой, М. Ларионова Ж. Брака, А. Матисса и других. Работы, предоставленные музеями и частными коллекциями различных стран, впервые объединены в одном издании.

Составителям удалось превратить каталог в увлекательное повествование. Творческий подход к подаче иллюстративного материала позволил использовать различные неординарные приёмы для более наглядной демонстрации костюмов, театральных эскизов и т. д.

Dazzling mosaic pictures made of glittering shards of light-reflecting colored glass embellish Rome’s oldest churches and tell an enduring story of beauty, faith, and artistry across a thousand years.

This book brings these little-known masterpieces to life while exploring their meaning, historical context, and spiritual power.

Through brilliant full-color photographs with lavish details, Wendy A. Stein presents twelve ensembles of mosaic preserved in nine churches. The subjects reveal their glory as their imagery is decoded, telling the story of an ideal Rome whose power was derived from both its imperial past and its Christian legacy. Together, the mosaics embody the interpretation of light as an expression of the divine. With a detailed map to easily locate the churches, this volume is a perfect travel companion.

About the Author:

Wendy A. Stein is an art historian affiliated with the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She is the author of How to Read Medieval Art.

Hailed by The Times as 'a pearl of a book', this new narrative history of the Renaissance by one of the UK’s foremost art critics takes in the whole of Europe and its global context

What was the 'Renaissance'? In the nineteenth century this flowering of creativity and thought was celebrated as the birth of the modern world. Today many historians are sceptical about its very existence. Earthly Delights rekindles the Renaissance as a seismic change in European mentalities, in a panoramic history that encompasses Florence and Bruges, London and Nuremberg. Artists from northern as well as southern Europe, including Leonardo, Bosch, Bruegel and Titian, star in a captivating and beautifully illustrated narrative that sets their lives against a period of convulsive change across a continent that was finding itself as it ‘discovered’ the world.

Art critic and writer Jonathan Jones tells the story of Renaissance artists as pioneers, adventurers and ‘geniuses’, a Renaissance concept. Albrecht Dürer gazes with wonder on Aztec art in Brussels in 1520, Leonardo da Vinci tries to perfect a flying machine, Hieronymus Bosch finds inspiration in West African ivory carvings imported by the Portuguese to Antwerp. A then unknown Netherlandish painter, Pieter Bruegel, arrives in 1550s Rome just as Michelangelo is striving in the same city to raise the new St Peter’s Basilica towards heaven. From Atlantic voyages to Germanic woods, Italian palazzi to the royal castle of Prague, this was an age when people dared to experiment with the occult and dabble in utopias: to think and create new worlds.

About the Author:

Jonathan Jones is the art critic for the Guardian newspaper. He is the author of several books including The Lost Battles: Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Artistic Duel that Defined the Renaissance (2010), The Loves of the Artists: Art and Passion in the Renaissance (2013), Sensations: The Story of British Art from Hogarth to Banksy (2019) and Artemisia Gentileschi (2020). Jones was also a member of the jury for the 2009 Turner Prize and has appeared in the BBC series Private Life of a Masterpiece. He was Series Consultant for BBC2’s Civilisations and is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

Contents List:

Introduction
1. The Arnolfini Nude
2. The Naked Citizen
3. The Triumph of Love
4. Profane Angels
5. Worldly Knowledge
6. Haywain To Hell
7. The Garden of Earthly Delights
8. Render Unto Caesar
9. Melancholia
10. Pulse of Life
11. Judgements
12. Carnival and Lent
13. Curiosities

A gloriously illustrated overview of angels across art, religion, and literature

Ineffable, invisible, inscrutable – angels are enduring creatures across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and human experiences of the divine as mediated by spiritual emissaries are an aspect of almost every religious tradition. In popular culture, angels are often reduced to the most gauzy, sentimental, and saccharine of images – fat babies with wings and guardians with robes, halos, and harps. By contrast, in scripture whenever one of the heavenly choirs appears before a prophet or patriarch they first declare "Fear not!" for terror would be the most appropriate initial reaction to these otherworldly beings. Angels are often not what we'd expect, but it's precisely in that transcendent encounter that something of the strangeness of existence can be conveyed. Elysium: A Visual History of Angelology is a follow-up volume to Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology, and like that earlier title, this book will offer an account of the angelic hierarchies as they've been understood across centuries and cultures, of the individual personages like the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel who have marked the mythology of the West.

About the Author:

Ed Simon is staff writer for literary site The Millions and has contributed his characteristically engaging cultural criticism to almost every major American literary publication, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, The New Republic, and The Washington Post. With a PhD in English, Simon is an expert on the literature and religion of Renaissance Britain and early America, but he has developed a reputation among editors, critics, and readers for introducing complex subjects in an accessible manner. In fall 2021, Abrams Books released his latest book, Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology, which has since become the standard text on the subject for popular readers.

A comprehensive and sumptuous survey that celebrates the beauty and appeal of flowers throughout art, history, and culture

Take a journey across continents and cultures to discover the endless ways artists and image-makers have employed floral motifs throughout history. With 316 color illustrations showcasing the diversity of blooms from all over the world, Flower spans a wide range of styles and media - from art, botanical illustrations, and sculptures to floral arrangements, film stills, and textiles - and follows a visually stunning sequence with works, regardless of period, thoughtfully paired to allow interesting and revealing juxtapositions between them. Flower follows in the footsteps of Plant, Exploring the Botanical World, which Martha Stewart Living described as "breathtaking."

Featuring large-scale images and accessible texts Flower offers a comprehensive introduction to the subject and includes both much-loved works together with examples that may prove more surprising discoveries, even for specialists. Selected by an international panel of art historians, museum curators, botanists, florists, horticulturalists, and more, works by a diverse range of both lesser-known and iconic artists and image-makers are featured, including: Nobuyoshi Araki, Cecil Beaton, Georg Ehret, David Hockney, Horst P. Horst, Nick Knight, Yayoi Kusama, Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Mapplethorpe, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Cedric Morris, William Morris, Georgia O'Keeffe, Irving Penn, David Hockney, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Rachel Ruysch, Constance Spry, and Flora Starkey.

Advisory panel: Lugene B. Bruno, Dr James Compton, Shane Connolly, Anne-Pierre d'Albis-Ganem, Celia Fisher, Susan M. Fraser, Victoria Gaiger, Elizabeth Hammer, Daisy Helman, Catherine Hess, Pascale Heurtel, Dr Lisa Hostetler, Lyndsey Ingram, Professor Dr Hans Walter Lack, Dr Fred G. Meijer, Colleen Morris, Polly Nicholson, Lynn Parker, Anna Pavord, Gill Saunders, Lindsey Taylor, Anatole Tchikine and Betsy Wieseman

Additional texts: Giovanni Aloi, Louise Bell, Lugene Bruno, Shane Connolly, Clare Coulson, Louisa Elderton, Celia Fisher, Diane Fortenberry, Victoria Gaiger, Daisy Helman, Pascale Heurtel, Lyndsey Ingram, Hans Walter Lack, Fred G. Meijer, Alison Morris, Colleen Morris, Polly Nicholson, Michele Robecchi, Rebecca Roke, Gill Saunders, James Smith, Lindsey Taylor, David Trigg and Martin Walters

About the Author:

Anna Pavord's books include her globally bestselling The Tulip and The Naming of Names, and more recently The Seasonal Gardener, published by Phaidon. Her gardening column in the Independent newspaper in the UK ran for thirty years from the paper's launch in 1986 until the last print edition. Today she writes for the Sunday Times and is an Associate Editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine. Pavord lives in West Dorset and was awarded the Gold Veitch medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in 2001.

Shane Connolly is the founder of Shane Connolly & Company Flowers, London and Royal Warrant holder to HM The Queen and HRH the Prince of Wales.

A rich overview of the fascinating life and career of internationally renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), this volume features the artist’s complex and diverse paintings, a series of thoughtful essays about her and her oeuvre, and a detailed illustrated chronology.

As a woman artist who confronted many taboo subjects — and herself — head-on, Kahlo produced groundbreaking work that shifted the terrain of the art world. In these pages, new high-resolution photographs present the most accurate reproductions ever of her visionary artworks, including many ravishing details. That astounding fidelity and the detailed analysis of the artist’s life and process combine to make this a must-have book for Kahlo’s legions of fans worldwide.

Readable and illuminating, Frida Kahlo is illustrated with rarely seen paintings from private collections alongside iconic favorites, including many of Kahlo’s striking self-portraits and her sensual still lifes. Archival and personal photographs, insightful descriptions of her works, and numerous excerpts from her intimate diaries and letters provide context and imbue Kahlo’s work with additional meaning. Authors Héctor Tajonar and Roxana Velásquez — the world’s foremost authorities on Frida Kahlo — deftly untangle the many threads of Kahlo’s complex persona. Kahlo was a charismatic force. Fiercely political and proud of her Mexican heritage, she maintained a dense network of romantic and platonic relationships, including two marriages to fellow artist Diego Rivera. But her childhood illness and the tragic accident she suffered as a teenager left her physically vulnerable. Understanding that duality is key to fully appreciating Kahlo’s extraordinary work. With this deeply researched, stunningly designed volume in hand, readers can do just that.

About the Author:

Roxana Velásquez is the director of the San Diego Museum of Art and previously served as director of the Palace of Fine Arts (2007–2010), the National Art Museum (2004–2007), and the San Carlos National Museum (1997–2004) in Mexico. She has garnered international recognition as an expert on Frida Kahlo and for organizing major exhibitions, including Frida Kahlo 1907–2007 as well as National Homage (which attracted a record-breaking 420,000 visitors) at the Palace of Fine Arts in 2007.

The perfect subject for a graphic novel, Frida Kahlo's brief life was dramatic and romantic, tragic and painful. In this illustrated 'biography', Vanna Vinci captures the spirit of Kahlo's world in boldly coloured, minutely detailed illustrations. Blending facts and history with dreamlike and surreal sequences, Vinci creates an intimate portrayal of an artist who incorporated her life experiences into her art. Burning love and crushing loss, incredible joy and deep despair - these were all part of Kahlo's life and part of the paintings that are some of the most celebrated art of all time. Filled with images that populated Kahlo's work - monkeys and parrots, traditional clothing and lush gardens - Vinci imbues her text and drawings with an artist's perception and sensitivity. The result is an evocative, fittingly passionate tribute to a legendary figure.

The Saint Louis Art Museum has assembled one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive collections of German Expressionist paintings. Rediscover a defining movement of modern art through this original study of works by 25 artists who span its famously wide arc.

This is the first publication on the Saint Louis Art Museum’s internationally renowned collection of German Expressionist art, which includes major works by the movement’s leading artists and lesser-known figures rarely seen outside of Germany. Engaging entries delve into the paintings’ histories, from their production to their arrival in St. Louis. An introduction traces the collection’s origins to the flood of Expressionist art that entered the United States during World War II. What emerges is a new account of a pivotal era in modern art.

About the Author:

Melissa Venator is assistant curator of modern art at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Sarah Symmons' fascinating account locates Goya in the context of his Spanish heritage, traces the immense influence of his work throughout Europe and considers the continued relevance of his art in the twentieth century. Drawings, oil paintings, frescos, tapestry designs and prints all convey the full range of Goya's work. Symmons draws on the most recent scholarship and on rediscovered works to create a comprehensive portrait of this complex artist that is perfectly up-to-date and highly absorbing.

About the Author:

Sarah Symmons is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex.

Written in the early 18th century by Samurai retainer Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure is the classic exposition of Bushido, the warrior code of the Samurai, divided into a collection of commentaries. Combining elements of both Zen Buddhism and Confucianism, Hagakure teaches a wisdom centred on loyalty, devotion, purity and selflessness, placing a strong emphasis on the notion of living in the present moment with a strong and clear mind. With a focus on living with honour and a willingness to die at any moment in service of a lord, Hagakure was a popular and widely-read guide to Samurai ethics for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

This illustrated edition offers hundreds of aphorisms from the original, covering topics as wide-ranging as how to avoid selfishness, the importance of paying respect to elders, teachers and parents, gaining self-knowledge through modesty and discipline, committing to a task no matter what the odds are, and how to achieve the state of a pure and uncomplicated mind.

Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding, Hagakure Illustrated is a classic collection of clearly expressed and entertaining sketches, stories and aphorisms reflecting on every aspect of life and death according to Bushido, the moral code of the Samurai.

About the Author:

Yamamoto Tsunetomo (山本 常朝), (1659–1719), was a Samurai of the Saga domain in Hizen province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. He became a Zen Buddhist priest and relayed his experiences, memories, lessons, ideas, and aphorisms to the Samurai Tashiro Tsuramoto, who compiled them under the title Hagakure.

Art is for Everybody. The artist as activist

One of the key figures in the New York art world of the 1980s, Keith Haring (1958-1990) created a signature style that blended street art, graffiti, Pop, and cartoon elements to unique, memorable effect. With thick black outlines, bright colours, and kinetic figures, his public (and occasionally illegal) interventions, sculptures, and works on canvas and paper have become instantly recognizable icons of 20th-century visual culture.

From his first chalk drawings in the New York City subway stations, to his renowned Radiant Baby symbol, and his commissions for Swatch Watch and Absolut Vodka, Haring s work was both emblematic of the manic work ethic of 1980s New York, yet distinctive for its social-awareness. Belying their bright, playful aesthetics, his pieces often tackled intensely controversial socio-political issues, including racism, capitalism, religious fundamentalism, and the increasing impact of AIDS on New York's gay community, the latter foreshadowing his own death from the disease in 1990.

In this vivid introduction to Haring's work, we explore the dynamic life and innovative spirit of this singular artist, who spent little more than a decade in the spotlight, but through the accessibility of his visual vocabulary and the strength of his political commitment became one of the most significant artists to emerge from New York's vibrant, downtown community.

About the series:

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