Книги по истории искусства

Less a distinct style than the concrete expression of being in a particular era, Pop Art began as a revolt against mainstream approaches to art and culture and evolved into a wholesale interrogation of modern society, consumer culture, and the role of the artist and artwork.

The movement’s primary provocation was to defy ideas of the artistic canon or “originality” by integrating mass market imagery into their works. Whether advertising slogans, famed Hollywood faces, comic-strip-style characters, or the packaging of consumer products, the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein knowingly reproduced mundane, everyday images from popular culture.

At the same time, Pop Art reduced the role of the individual and challenged the notion of originality by deploying mass production techniques such as screen printing. Like a hall of mirrors, the resulting works came to interrogate both the ideas and desires of contemporary culture, and its state of simulacra, whereby images, substitutes, and representations come to define the experience of “reality.”

In this book, Tilman Osterwold explores the styles, sources, and stars of the Pop Art phenomenon. From Lichtenstein’s comic-book aesthetics to Warhol’s images of Marilyn, it explores how a movement that interrogated the icons of its time came to produce icons of its own.

Whaam! When the kitschy, banal, and mass-market became art

Peaking in the 1960s, Pop Art began as a revolt against mainstream approaches to art and culture and evolved into a wholesale interrogation of modern society, consumer culture, the role of the artist, and of what constituted an artwork.

Focusing on issues of materialism, celebrity, and media, Pop Art drew on mass-market sources, from advertising imagery to comic books, from Hollywood's most famous faces to the packaging of consumer products, the latter epitomized by Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans. As well as challenging the establishment with the elevation of such popular, banal, and kitschy images, Pop Art also deployed methods of mass-production, reducing the role of the individual artist with mechanized techniques such as screen printing.

With featured artists including Andy Warhol, Allen Jones, Ed Ruscha, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein, this book introduces the full reach and influence of a defining modernist movement.

About the series:

- Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre series features:
- approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions
- a detailed illustrated introduction plus a timeline of the most important political, cultural, and social events that took place during that period
- a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist

The world’s most famous portraits and the hidden stories behind their subjects are explored in this fascinating and highly entertaining book.

Portraiture is one of the oldest and most studied genres of art. While most scholars will look at a painting’s composition, style, and themes, often questions remain unanswered—who were these people and why were they painted? This entertaining book reveals the identities and lives of some of the most famous characters that populate art history — from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Readers will learn how the fifteen-year-old subject of da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine nearly destroyed a marriage; that van Dyck’s depiction of Prudence in wild clothes is actually one of the most controversial aristocrats of the seventeenth century; and that Francis Bacon’s character George Dyer was a man he met in a Soho nightclub.

These and other stories behind works by Picasso, Klimt, Rubens, Warhol, and dozens of other artists show how portraiture remains one of the most enthralling genres.

Based on art scholarship and conveyed in an accessible tone, these fascinating tales of power, lust, intrigue, jealousy, vengeance, and romance will help readers understand masterpieces of art history in an entirely new light.

Illustrious turning point - Augsburg as the centre of the German Renaissance.

Hans Holbein the Elder and Hans Burgkmair are regarded alongside Albrecht Dürer as the forerunners of Renaissance painting in Germany. The prosperous Imperial and trading city of Augsburg was an important centre during this artistic golden age. By means of high-quality works this volume presents a comprehensive insight into the epochal revolution from the Middle Ages to the modern age.

Augsburg was influenced by the humanist culture of Italy from an early stage. Thanks to the art-loving trading houses with international operations like the Fuggers, as well as the long sojourns of Emperor Maximilian I and the frequent Imperial diets, the city offered artists like Holbein the Elder and Burgkmair an ideal setting for the development of a new form of art. Together with the works of Dürer, Holbein the Younger and others, many of their most important works bear witness to the highly fertile and yet contrasting ways in which the two artists adopted the Italian Renaissance.

About the Authors:

Guido Messling is the curator for German Painting in the Gallery of Painting at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Jochen Sander is the deputy director and head of collections for Dutch, Flemish and German Painting before 1800 at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

An alphabet developed by Germanic and Nordic peoples during ancient times, runes were used to represent both simple things and more complex concepts, providing a written form of communication before the Latin alphabet was adopted. Today, reading runes are a popular tool for understanding the present and divining the future.

Divided into three broad chapters, showing how to use runes, outlining the full runic alphabet, and ancient runestone today, Runes Illustrated provides a compact, accessible guide to this ancient reading system. Discover the basic three rune layout, and how it can help bring clarity when seeking guidance; learn how to arrange the runes in a five rune cast, which offers a more complex reading; discover Uruz, U, which means a wild ox in Elder Futhark, the oldest runic alphabet; and see how runic inscriptions were combined on standing stones to mark burial sites and the deeds of great warriors.

Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding and with 120 illustrations and photographs of runes, rune readings and runestones, this book will fascinate anyone interested in this ancient writing form and its uses today.

About the Author:

Rachel Newcombe is a writer, editor and researcher who contributes to a range of print and online publications. She is co-author of The Complete Crystal Sourcebook and general editor of The Self-Care Bible. She is fascinated by the history and meaning of runes and ancient standing stones.

In Catholicism, sainthood is the highest state of holiness any mortal can achieve during this life – or the next. There are more than 10,000 official saints – some are exemplary models, others extraordinary teachers, while some have worked miracles or changed the lives of millions through their guidance and good works.

Arranged in chronological order, the book covers all the major saints, from St Paul, the Apostle who did most to spread Christianity following the death of Christ, and established Christian communities in Asia Minor – to Pope John Paul II, famous for being a peacemaker and providing spiritual inspiration during the fall of communism. In between, this compact volume covers well-known historical figures such as Joan of Arc, who defended the honour of France in the Medieval era, the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas, and lesser-known saints such as Zita, the 13th-century patron saint of maids and domestic servants.

Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding and with 150 illustrations and artworks of saints from every part of the world, this book will fascinate anyone interested in inspiring – and often very human – religious figures from Biblical times to the present.

About the Author:

A journalist for more than two decades, Dominic Connolly was for many years Arts Editor of The Mail on Sunday. He has also written for the Telegraph, Evening Standard, Metro and Saga Magazine, and is the author of three books. He lives in London.

The self as a subject is one of the most fascinating and fruitful of artistic enterprises. From the 15th century to today, this collection brings together some of the best examples of self-portraiture to explore the genre’s evolution over the centuries as well as the enduring questions of selfhood and self-representation that have besieged human experience for centuries before social media and the selfie.

Is a self-portrait of an artist a medium of reflection? Or is it merely a black void, the “false mirror,” as the Surrealist René Magritte entitled his 1928 painting of an eye? How much does it impart about contemporary notions of beauty, power, and status? From Albrecht Dürer to Egon Schiele, Fra Filippo Lippi to Frida Kahlo, this far-reaching collection explores the numerous ways in which artists have taken themselves as subjects, the variety of ingenious methods and perspectives they have used, and the intriguing questions they raise.

About the series:

- Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre series features:
- approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions
- a detailed illustrated introduction plus a timeline of the most important political, cultural, and social events that took place during that period
- a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist

A visually compelling and panoramic analysis of the eclectic culture of shamanism

Entering trance states, healing body and soul, invoking animals as spirit guides and journeying to incorporeal realms – these skills have been central to shamanism over thousands of years and across much of the world, from the Evenki shamans of northern and central Asia to contemporary Neo-Shamans of the West.

Join cultural and social anthropologist Max Carocci as he explores an eclectic array of shamanic artefacts and images, decoding the symbolism and explaining their extraordinary shamanic ritual practices. Marvel at the adornments of a Siberian shaman’s coat; examine the prehistoric rock art that depicts mystical transformations of shamans into animals; and discover the psychotropic plants that open our minds to interdimensional journeys of healing and wisdom.

Carocci makes the manifold meanings encoded in the forms, colours and purposes of shamanic images and objects clear, painting a vibrant and in-depth picture of shamanic cultures past and present.

About the Author:

Max Carocci is a cultural and social anthropologist and is currently adjunct professor in Art History and Visual Cultures at the American University in London. For twelve years, he designed and taught the World Arts programme for Birkbeck College, London, in partnership with the British Museum. He is the co-editor of Art, Shamanism and Animism (2022), and has curated numerous exhibitions and collections for institutions, including the British Museum, the Horniman Museum, the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, and the Musée du Nouveau Monde in La Rochelle, France.

Decode the secrets and uncover the origins and meanings of over 2,000 signs and symbols, from ancient hieroglyphs to modern-day logos.

Why is a heart pierced by an arrow a classic symbol of love? What are the ancient roots of fertility symbols? Why are scales a symbol of justice?

Delve into the meaning of each symbol and investigate how they have been interpreted in myth, religion, folklore, and art over time, with authoritative text from experts in the field and striking line drawings and photography that emphasize the visual strength and beauty of signs. Divided into six thematic sections - the cosmos, the natural world, human life, myths and religions, society and culture, and symbol systems - this guide to the secret language of signs and symbols is a must-have for those who want to understand the world around them.

Signs, Symbols and Ciphers takes the reader on journey of discovery through the intriguing world of symbols and what they can mean

How does a sign represent something other than itself? How do we understand the meaning of a written symbol? Can clothes be a sign? Can sounds?

Signs and symbols represent ideas and objects and, over time, these marks and gestures have multiplied into a complex network of images. This handy pocket-book combines scholarship, documentary evidence and fantastic illustrations to provide the story of how we have interacted with signs and symbols across the ages.

About the Author:

Georges Jean (1920 - 2011) was a French poet and essayist specializing in the field of linguistics, poetry and the philosophy of semiology.

Explore the most important sacred signs and symbols in the world with this visual directory

Chosen for their powerful symbolism, the illustrations in this book range from the myths and legends of the ancient world to the icons used in modern culture and science. You will discover the fascinating origins and meanings of over 500 signs and symbols, from the secrets of the Maya calendar to demon-summoning seals and secretive symbols of the hermetic orders.

Divided into seven thematic sections – astrology; the natural world; sacred writings; alchemy, numerology and sacred geometry; magic; demonology; and the western esoteric tradition – this decoding guide is the ultimate resource for unlocking the secret language of signs and symbols for the modern occultist.

Contents List:

Foreword
1. Astrology
2. The Natural World
3. Sacred Writings
4. Occult Sciences
5. White Magic and Cartomancy
6. Black Magic and Demonology
7. Western Esoteric Tradition

About the Author:

Eric Chaline is a professional author and editor based in London. He has a special interest in religion and philosophy, especially in relation to East Asia, Mesoamerica, and India. He has written books on a range of subjects, such as history, travel, and health and fitness. His published works include The Book of Zen, The Book of Gods and Goddesses, Simple Path to Yoga, 101 Dilemmas for the Armchair Philosopher, Lost Treasures, History’s Worst Inventions, Fifty Minerals that Changed History, Ancient Greece, and Strokes of Genius: A History of Swimming (which won the Lord Aberdare Prize for best book on the history of sport in 2018). Publishers he has worked with include Quarto Publishing plc, Harper Collins, Firefly, New Holland Publishers Ltd, David and Charles Plc, and Reaktion Books Ltd. He has an MA in Japanese Studies and spent seven years in Japan where he studied Zen Buddhism and the martial arts. He also has a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies.

Used for self-exploration or divination, Tarot has, for more than a 500 years, been the most popular and accessible of all esoteric tools, looming large in today’s mainstream culture. Why? Because the cards are inexpensive and easy to carry — a perfect traveling companion and, therefore, an invitation to a journey inward and out.

Humans are drawn to playing games and feel driven to find meaning in the chaos of paradoxical signs. The vivid iconography of the “arcanas” speak to us like no other language, moving us to the core, weaving through each cards a universal story, a metaphorical pathway of transformation.

This 400 page book presents for the first time a close look at 500 years of figurative card decks created or used for fortune telling, divinations, and oracle purposes and will explore, one card at the time, their iconographic roots at the cross-roads of the medieval imaginarium, Western esoteric wisdom, folklore, and also contemporary art and pop culture.

With hundreds of images drawn from more than 100 decks, rarely published and often forgotten in library archives, it will offer the first visual history of tarot.

About the Author:

French-born Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar and curator, as well as a professional tarot reader and teacher. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history at the Sorbonne in Paris. Barbier has worked with Morbid Anatomy as the programming director and head librarian since 2012. Her work has been featured in Atlas Obscura, Vice, and in Death: A Graveside Companion (Thames & Hudson). Barbier shares her love for tarot and obscure fortune telling decks and techniques through her Instagram account, where she has nearly 40,000 followers.

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Пролистать книгу Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive на Google Books.

Discover the story of colour through the significant scientific discoveries and key artist’s works over 400 years.

From Isaac Newton’s investigations through to Olafur Eliasson’s experiential creations, this stunning book documents the fascinating story of colour with an extraordinary collection of original colour material that includes charts, wheels, artists’ palettes, swatches and schemes.

“In 1704, the scientist Isaac Newton published Opticks, the result of many years of researching light and colour. By splitting white light, Newton identified the visible range of colours, or the rainbow spectrum. In Opticks, he built a colour system around his findings, and he visualised this system in a circular shape, making it one of the first printed colour wheels.
The influence of Newton and his followers, combined with the invention of many new pigments as well as watercolours in moist cake form, had made painting with colour an exciting occupation not just for serious artists but also for a much wider audience. The colour revolution had begun.”

Contents:
Introduction
1. Unravelling the Rainbow: The Eighteenth-Century Colour Revolution
2. Romantic Ideas & New Technologies: The Early Nineteenth Century
3. Industrialism to Impressionism: The Later Nineteenth Century
4. Colour for Colour’s Sake: Colour into the Future:
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

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Пролистать книгу Tate: Colour: A Visual History на Google Books.

A revised edition of a classic title, now with digitally restored photographs, showcasing the finest surviving examples of ancient Buddhist art.

'Benoy K. Behl's remarkable photographs, painstakingly gathered and digitally restored over thirty years of hard labour, are probably the best and truest record of these fabulous treasures that will ever be created.' William Dalrymple

A revised edition of a classic title, now with digitally restored photographs, showcasing the finest surviving examples of ancient Buddhist art.

Since their chance re-discovery in 1819, the breathtaking paintings and sculptures of the Ajanta caves have inspired and delighted experts and amateurs alike. Ranging in date from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE, these ancient Buddhist artworks rank among the world's most important cultural treasures. Benoy K. Behl captured the beauty and luminosity of these works using long exposures and only natural light and now presents them here digitally restored to show the paintings closer to their original glory than ever before.

The exquisite murals, depicting the tales of previous incarnations of Buddha, scenes of princely processions and fantastical birds and beasts, provide virtually the only evidence of painting styles that first developed in India and remain crucially important to the understanding of Buddhist art throughout Asia. On UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, the Ajanta caves survive as a potent symbol of the great beauty of India's rich artistic past.

This new edition provides for the first time a view of some of the masterpieces of Ajanta painstakingly digitally restored by Behl. Sensitively carried out, the restoration makes the paintings clearer without interfering with their original grace and nuance, leading to a deeper appreciation of their artistry. Accompanied by expert commentaries to fully immerse the reader in the cultural context of the murals, this book will help preserve the legacy of the glorious art of Ajanta for years to come.

About the Author:

Benoy K. Behl is an art historian, film-maker and photographer who is known for his tireless and prolific output of work over the past forty-six years. He has taken over 53,000 photographs of Asian monuments and art heritage and made 145 documentaries on subjects of art and culture.

A brand-new revised and updated edition of Phaidon's accessible, acclaimed A-Z guide to the most important artists of all time

Updated for only the third time in its 16-year history, this new edition of the award-winning landmark publication has been refreshed with more than 40 important new artists, including many previously overlooked and marginal practitioners. The new edition spotlights more than 600 great artists from medieval to modern times. Breaking with traditional classifications, it throws together brilliant examples from all periods, schools, visions, and techniques, presenting an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich, multifaceted culture.

Artists featured for the first time in this edition include: Berenice Abbott, Hilma af Klint, El Anatsui, Romare Bearden, Mark Bradford, Cao Fei, Cecily Brown, Judy Chicago, John Currin, Guerrilla Girls, Lee Krasner, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Joan Mitchell, Zanele Muholi, Takashi Murakami, Louise Nevelson, Clara Peeters, Jenny Saville, Wolfgang Tillmans, and more

- Celebrated and award-winning title, published in more 20 languages and in a variety of formats, which has introduced millions of people worldwide to art and artists
- Showcases art from medieval times to the present day, including paintings, photographs, sculptures, video, installations, and performance
- Updated with 40 additional works, including overlooked historical and cutting-edge contemporary artists
- Each artist is represented by a key work and an informative, explanatory text on the piece and its creator
- Debunks art-historical classifications by juxtaposing brilliant examples across periods, schools, visions, and techniques