Книги по истории искусства

The Purple Book is a luxurious compendium of contemporary illustration that explores fantasy, sensuality and the erotic imagination. It highlights visual art and the written word as media for representing human desire’s relationship with the dream-state, make-believe and symbolism.

Much of the work by illustrators exploring these themes is unpublished, personal work, and many works here appear in print for the first time. As well as a treasury of portfolios by 21 of the very best international contemporary illustrators, a series of specially-commissioned works illustrate five classic literary texts that have inspired the themes of The Purple Book. The personalities behind this commissioned work are revealed through interviews with their creators, exploring the imaginative process behind their visual fantasies and how this translates into the final artwork.

The title of the book is inspired by The Yellow Book, the periodical published in the 1890s and initially art directed by Aubrey Beardsley. While the colour yellow represented the daringly salacious in the 1890s, today the colour purple is synonymous with opulence and sensuality.

The rituals of Siberian shamans, the ancient funerary sculptures from the steppes seen as a crystallised presence of archaic and everlasting forms of worship, Chinese popular prints, Japanese engravings, Theosophic and Anthroposophic theories and Indian philosophy are but some of the elements that inspired the aesthetic and theoretical pursuits of the new Russian artists and writers just before the October 1917 Revolution.

Written to accompany the exhibition in Florence, this book is devoted to the complex relation between Russian art and the East – be it the Russian East or the Far East – with a special focus on the radical artists who shaped the development of modern art a century ago.

Figures such as Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Pavel Filonov, Natal’ia Goncharova, Wassily Kandinsky, Mikhail Larionov and Kazimir Malevich were deeply aware of the significance of the East for their art, and contributed to launching a rich debate that left a deep and permanent mark on their artistic praxis. The catalogue and the exhibition also draw a connection between the chief representatives of the Russian avant-garde and other lesser-known but just as important artists of the period such as Nikolai Kalmakov, Sergei Konenkov and Vasilii Vatagin, some of whose works are being displayed for the first time in the West.

Coinciding with the diffusion of cubism and with the arrival of artists fleeing war to the Iberian Peninsula, such as Gleizes, Picabia, and the Delaunays, Spanish dance emerges as a model for abstract and decorative rhythm. Numerous artists used the dancer s image to disarrange the figure, traveling from figuration to stylization or abstraction: among them, Picasso, Severini and Lipchitz. The same follows for the guitar, an element in numerous compositions, which is not foreign for its identification to the feminine body. Culturally Spanish subject matters, or castizo themes, were turned into a successful genre, between the advertising and tourist gaze, studies on folklore and reflections on identity. They were also years of fiestas and excesses, and flamenco made its appearance in many of these. Costumes and cross-dressing often acquire a Spanish character.

A global bestseller for over five decades and translated into over 30 languages, with over 8 million copies sold

Exquisite cloth-bound edition of the classic art-history text – the perfect gift for every art connoisseur and student

For more than 60 years Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art has been a global bestseller – with more than 8 million copies sold – the perfect introduction to art history, from the earliest cave paintings to art of the twentieth century, a masterpiece of clarity and personal insight. This classic book is currently in its 16th edition and has been translated into more than 30 languages, and published in numerous formats and editions. Now, for the first time, this Luxury Edition is the ultimate gift purchase for all art lovers – a perfect keepsake to treasure, and to inspire future generations.

The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, and one who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject.

For the first time in many years the book has been completely redesigned. The illustrations, now in colour throughout, have all been improved and reoriginated, and include six fold-outs. The text has been revised and updated where appropriate, and a number of significant new artists have been incorporated. The bibliographies have been expanded and updated, and the maps and charts redrawn.

The Story of Art has always been admired for two key qualities: it is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to handle. In these respects the new edition is true to its much-loved predecessors: the text runs as smoothly as ever and the improved illustrations are always on the page where the reader needs them. In its new edition, this classic work continues its triumphant progress tirelessly for yet another generation, to remain the title of first choice for any newcomer to art or the connoisseur.

A new, compact edition of the most popular art book ever written

The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, and one who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject.

For the first time in many years the book has been completely redesigned. The illustrations, now in colour throughout, have all been improved and reoriginated, and include six fold-outs. The text has been revised and updated where appropriate, and a number of significant new artists have been incorporated. The bibliographies have been expanded and updated, and the maps and charts redrawn.

The Story of Art has always been admired for two key qualities: it is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to handle. In these respects the new edition is true to its much-loved predecessors: the text runs as smoothly as ever and the improved illustrations are always on the page where the reader needs them. In its new edition, this classic work continues its triumphant progress tirelessly for yet another generation, to remain the title of first choice for any newcomer to art or the connoisseur.

One of the most famous and popular books on art ever written

The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, and one who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject.

For the first time in many years, the book has been completely redesigned. The illustrations, now in colour throughout, have all been improved and reoriginated, and include six fold-outs. The text has been revised and updated where appropriate, and a number of significant new artists have been incorporated. The bibliographies have been expanded and updated, and the maps and charts redrawn.

The Story of Art has always been admired for two key qualities: it is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to handle. In these respects the new edition is true to its much-loved predecessors: the text runs as smoothly as ever and the improved illustrations are always on the page where the reader needs them. In its new edition, this classic work continues its triumphant progress tirelessly for yet another generation, to remain the title of first choice for any newcomer to art or the connoisseur.

An original and breathtakingly beautiful perspective on how art developed through the ages, this book reveals how new materials and techniques inspired artists to create their greatest works.

The Story of Painting will completely transform your understanding and enjoyment of art. Covering a comprehensive array of topics, from the first pigments and frescos to linear perspective in Renaissance paintings, the influence of photography, Impressionism, and the birth of modern art, it follows each step in the evolution of painting over the last 25,000 years, from the first cave paintings to the abstract works of the last 100 years. Packed with lavish colour reproductions of paintings and photographs of artists at work and the materials they used, it delves into the key paintings from each period to analyse the techniques and secrets of the great masters in detail.

Immerse yourself in the pages of this stunning book and find yourself dazzled by new colours; marvel at the magic of perspective; wonder at glowing depictions of fabric and flesh; understand cubism; and embrace abstraction. You will look at paintings in a whole new light.

About the Author:

Andrew Graham Dixon is one of the leading art critics and presenters of arts television programmes in the English-speaking world. He has presented numerous landmark series on art for the BBC, including the acclaimed A History of British Art, Renaissance, and Art of Eternity, as well as numerous individual documentaries on art and artists. For more than 20 years, he has published a weekly column on art, first in the Independent and, more recently, in the Sunday Telegraph. He has written a number of books on subjects ranging from medieval painting and sculpture to contemporary art.

Imagine having an opulent compilation of history's most elegant and beautiful patterns and designs at your fingertips - to use, peruse, admire, and be inspired by. World of Ornament brings together the two greatest encyclopedic collections of ornament from the 19th-century chromo-lithographic tradition: Auguste Racinet's L'Ornement polychrome Volumes I and II (1875/1888) and M. Dupont-Auberville's L'Ornement des tissus (1877). Adapted from historical items dating back to antiquity, such as jewellery, tiles, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, textiles, and ceramics, these ornamental designs encompass a wide range of cultural aesthetics including classic Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan motifs, Asian and middle-Eastern patterns, as well as European designs from medieval times through the 19th century.

Artists, historians, and art lovers will appreciate this lavish idea book, and interior designers and patternmakers will be delighted that all of the ornamental designs may be used and reproduced without restriction!

Includes DVD-ROM containing high-resolution scans of all individual ornaments for unrestricted use

Whether inspired by Classical legend, traditional tales or simply their own imagination, countless artists have been captivated by these heavenly and mythological creatures. Angels and Fairies is a beautiful reference book which takes a look at some of the art inspired by these mysterious beings.

Follows the development of one of the Twentieth Century`s most glamorous styles. All aspects of 1920s and 1930s design and architecture were affected by its elegant sophistication, and this beautiful new book shows how its pervading influences transformed everyday objects into luxurious works of art.

This series aims to combine a compact, commercial approach with the breadth and clarity of larger format books. Covering art which both creates the foundation of modern culture and modern art itself, the books include International Arts and Crafts, Turner, Whistler, Monet, and the Art Deco movement.

Bauhaus examines a remarkable collection of works produced in this highly distinctive artistic style. Featuring art from all of the Bauhaus School`s most gifted advocates, it traces the rise and fall of a movement that, through its attempts to unite art and industry to produce a new aesthetic of beautiful functionalism, influenced twenty-first century art like no other.

A celebration of the Impressionists artists, including Monet, Renoir and Pissarro, whose paintings are inextricably linked to the birth of modern art. 

Today, our passion for these artists remains, and their paintings are amongst the best-loved works in the history of art. By choosing to paint extraordinary pictures of modernity that shocked the bourgeois elite, the Impressionists challenged the academic ideals of the French Salons, rejected the past and embracing colour to portray a sense of joie de vivre. Their revolutionary use of colour, free brushstrokes and modern subject matter, painted en plain air gave rise to one of the most important and influential art movements of the nineteenth century. 

Featuring many of the most famous and important pieces by the groups’ key figures, this beautifully illustrated reference book also includes a collection of less well-known but equally important works to show the diversity of this exceptional movement.

A celebration of the design movement that started in Britain and spread round the world at the end of the nineteenth century. Depicting both well-known and unusual art and artefacts from this most fascinating of eras, this book provides a wealth of information about the lives and times of the designers, architects and artists who created them.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. Their art’s romanticism, attention to detail and jewel-like colours have ensured their eternal popularity. This beautifully illustrated reference book is packed with exampes of work by the key proponent Millais, and that of his contemporaries, alongside illuminating information. Beginning with an overview of the movement it goes on to discuss the art in the context of society, place, influences, and styles and techniques. An ideal gift for art lovers or those new to the subject.