Книги по теории искусства

From the earliest cave paintings through to the internet and street art, this inspiring book chronicles the 100 most influential ideas that have shaped the world of art. Arranged in broadly chronological order, it provides a unique and compelling take on the history of art.

The book shows how developments in materials and technology have radically changed the way that art is produced. Each entry explores when an idea first evolved and how it has resurfaced in the work of different artists up to the present day.

Illustrated with historical masterpieces and packed with fascinating contemporary examples, this is an inspirational and wholly original guide to understanding the forces that have shaped world art.

About the Author:

Michael Bird is a writer and art historian. His books include The St Ives Artists, Studio Voices and an acclaimed history of art for children, Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories. He is Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Two authorities on popular culture reveal the ways in which art can enhance mood and enrich lives - now available in paperback

This passionate, thought-provoking, often funny, and always-accessible book proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting that it can be useful, relevant, and therapeutic. Through practical examples, the world-renowned authors argue that certain great works of art have clues as to how to manage the tensions and confusions of modern life. Chapters on love, nature, money, and politics show how art can help with many common difficulties, from forging good relationships to coming to terms with mortality.

About the Authors:

Alain de Botton is the author of bestselling books, including The Consolations of Philosophy, How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxiety, and Religion for Atheists. He founded The School of Life in 2008, an organization which - from branches around the world - supplies good ideas for everyday life in the form of books, workshops, and talks. In 2009 he founded Living Architecture, which makes high-quality architecture accessible to everyone.

John Armstrong is a philosopher and art theorist based at Melbourne University in Australia. He is the author of several well-received books, including The Intimate Philosophy of Art, and Conditions of Love.
 

‘Art is theft,’ Picasso once proclaimed, and much of the best and most ‘original’ new art involves an act or two of unequivocal, overt theft.

Paradoxically, the law relating to artistic borrowing has grown more restrictive. ‘The plagiarism and copyright trials of the twenty-first century are what the obscenity trials were to the twentieth century’, Kenneth Goldsmith, has observed. ‘These are really the issues of our time.’

Beg, Steal and Borrow offers a comprehensive and provocative survey of a complex subject that is destined to grow in relevance and importance. It traces an artistic lineage of appropriation from Michelangelo to Jeff Koons, and examines the history of its legality from the sixteenth century to now.

About the Author:

Robert Shore is the editor of the visual-arts quarterly Elephant and was previously deputy editor at Art Review magazine. As an arts journalist he has contributed to the Sunday Times, the Guardian and Metro. He is also the author of 10 Principles of Advertising and Bang in the Middle.

A wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of colour in life and art by John Gage, author of the award-winning Colour and Culture.

The complex phenomenon of colour has received detailed attention from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. However, the people who work most closely with colour – artists – have rarely been canvassed for their opinions on this mysterious subject.

John Gage sets out to address this omission by focusing on the thoughts and practices of artists. Colour in Art is concerned with the history of colour, but is not itself a history; instead each chapter develops a theme from a different scientific discipline, as seen from the viewpoint of such diverse artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Sonia Delaunay, Bridget Riley and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Drawing on examples through the ages, from ancient times to the present, the many topics covered include flags, synaesthesia, Theosophy, theatre design, film, chromotherapy and chromophobia.

Featuring a new foreword by art writer Kelly Grovier outlining contemporary developments in the study of colour, and an updated bibliography, this new edition of this classic text offers a wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of colour in life and art.

About the Author:

John Gage an acknowledged international authority on the history of art and colour, and wrote many books on the subject, including Colour and Meaning and the award-winning Colour and Culture, both published by Thames & Hudson. He was Head of the Department of History of Art at Cambridge University from 1992 to 1995. Kelly Grovier is a feature writer for BBC Culture and the author of several acclaimed studies on art, including A New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works (2018) and The Art of Colour (2023), both published by Thames & Hudson
 

The story of the Gothic, from early architecture and literature to the modern horror genre, illustrated by the beautiful, the macabre and the strange

Crumbling ruins, undead fiends, dark alleys and forests teeming with horrors seen and unseen: the tendrils of the Gothic have crept out of the architecture of churches, mosques and grand houses and into suburban malls, overcrowded cities, the deserted corners of the world and beyond, taking the shape of monsters from Beowulf to Gojira, Cthulhu or the wendigo to our own terrifying, warped reflections. Across time, form and media, this book traces the weaving path of the Gothic from the shadows of history to the very heart of popular culture today.

Contents List:

Introduction
I. Architecture & Form
The Pointed Arch • Ruins • Fragment • Labyrinth • The House
II. The Lie of the Land
The Country & The City • Village • Forest • Wilderness • Edgelands
III. The Gothic Compass
North • South • East • West • Planetary & Cosmic Horror
IV. Monsters
Scale • Splices • The Tentacle • Formless • Us
Further Reading

About the Author:

Roger Luckhurst is the author of The Invention of Telepathy, 1870–1901 (2002), The Mummy’s Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy (2012), and Zombies: A Cultural History (2015), and has edited several classic Gothic novels by Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson and H. P. Lovecraft. He is the Geoffrey Tillotson Professor of Nineteenth Century Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London.

A visual analysis of the colours used in furnishing fabrics and wallpapers from the 15th century to now, providing inspiration for designers

Spectrum offers a fascinating visual analysis of the colour palettes used in furnishing fabrics and wallpapers from the 15th century to the present day. Presented in chronological order, the earliest detail is taken from an early 15th-century embroidery in brick red, dusky pink, sage green, mustard yellow and smoky blue, the last from a graphic wallpaper design of 2009 that combines orange and yellow on a dramatic, dark background. Next to each pattern is a colour grid, which shows the relative proportions of the colours used, each labelled with its CMYK number – a worldwide standard printing code for colour that precisely identifies it. The grid gives a clear understanding of the ways colours have been expertly combined at different periods to create the beautiful designs we admire and emulate today.

This unique sourcebook will provide inspiration for all designers, both amateur and professional.

Contents List:

Introduction • About this book • About these objects • 15th century • 16th century • 17th century • 18th century • 19th century • 20th–21st century • Further reading

About the Author:

Ros Byam Shaw is a journalist who writes on design and interiors for The World of Interiors and House and Garden. She is the author of Farrow & Ball Living with Colour and Farrow & Ball Decorating with Colour as well as numerous other books on historic houses and interiors.

What is contemporary art, and how did art come to be what it is today? How can we understand what a work of art means; and can’t just about anything be called art these days?

Contemporary Art Decoded takes ten key questions about contemporary art and uses them to what you’re looking at, how it works, and why it matters. Steering clear of jargon, this book digs deep into the core ideas and concepts behind the art. It features some work you’ll recognise, and some you won’t, from some of the most exciting artists working today, such as Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama and Zanele Muholi.

This book is guaranteed to make your next trip to a gallery more rewarding.

Chapters include:

– What is contemporary art?
– Where did it come from?
– Where do you draw the line?
– Does it matter who makes it?
– Does it have to mean something?
– Can anything be art?
– What about art for art’s sake?
– Has it all been done before?
– Does it have to be so serious?
– What’s next?

Discover how artists have been tricking the human eye for centuries

This spellbinding look at the history and development of illusionistic art reveals wide-ranging techniques that have piqued the public’s fascination with this medium. Beautifully reproduced, the images featured in the book includes centuries-old work such as the scenery at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy, and the ceiling frescos at the Würzburg Residence in Germany, that showcase processes such as trompe l’oeil and anamorphosis. It also features work from the 20th and 21st centuries, including René Magritte’s classic surrealist works; M. C. Escher’s magical and mathematically precise drawings; the seemingly undulating paintings of Bridget Riley; the manipulated photography of Andreas Gursky; Duane Hanson’s eerily lifelike sculptures; JR’s larger-than-life portrait photographs; and Georges Rousse’s mind-bending constructions.

The book also has examples of amazing street art including subway graffiti and a sidewalk painting that makes pedestrians think twice. This extraordinary and informative guide to all kinds of artistic trickery will satisfy scholars as well as everyday fans.

About the Author:

Florian Heine is an arts editor, photographer, and author whose many books include 50 Contemporary Photographers You Should Know, Buildings that Revolutionized Architecture, and Photography: The Groundbreaking Moments (all by Prestel).

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Пролистать книгу The Art of Illusion

An updated edition of this essential practical handbook for all those involved in, or studying, the dynamic field of curating

From pitching your ideas and writing loan requests to working with artists, lenders and art handlers, to writing interpretation material, installing and promoting your exhibition; The Curator's Handbook is the most clear and complete guide yet to the art and practice of curating.

An introduction maps the history of curating from its origins in the 17th century to the multifarious roles of the curator today: tastemaker, custodian, interpreter, educator, facilitator, organizer. Adrian George then guides the reader, across thirteen chapters, through the process of curating an exhibition. Each step is described in valuable detail and clear, informative language by this experienced curator, whose text pinpoints the keys to success (as well as which pitfalls to avoid).

With advice and tips from a renowned cast of international museum directors and curators – including Daniel Birnbaum, Aric Chen, Elizabeth Ann MacGregor, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jennifer Russell and Nicholas Serota – this new edition, updated to reflect current concerns in the art world and the latest recommended best practices, remains the essential handbook for all students, museum and gallery professionals, as well as established or aspiring curators.

Contents List:

Introduction • 1. Starting Off • 2. From Idea to Reality • 3. Pitching • 4. Budgets and Fundraising • 5. Negotiating • 6. Exhibition Publications & Merchandise • 7. Putting a Show Together • 8. The Weeks Before the Opening • 9. Installation • 10. The Days before Opening and the Opening Day • 11. The Press Opening and Private View • 12. During – and after – the exhibition

About the Author:

Adrian George is a curator, commissioner, writer and educator with over twenty-three years’ experience working in some of the most influential art institutions in the world including the New Museum, New York; Tate Modern; Tate Liverpool and the UK Government Art Collection, UK. He is currently Director: Programmes, Exhibitions and Museum Services at ArtScience Museum, Singapore.

Phoebe Hoban’s definitive biography of the renowned American painter Alice Neel tells the unforgettable story of an artist whose life spanned the twentieth century, from women’s suffrage through the Depression, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, and feminism. Throughout her life and work, Neel constantly challenged convention, ultimately gaining an enduring place in the canon.

Alice Neel’s stated goal was to “capture the zeitgeist.” Born into a proper Victorian family at the turn of the twentieth century, Neel reached voting age during suffrage. A quintessential bohemian, she was one of the first artists participating in the Easel Project of the Works Progress Administration, documenting the challenges of life during the Depression. An avowed humanist, Neel chose to paint the world around her, sticking to figurative work even during the peak of abstract expressionism. Neel never ceased pushing the envelope, creating a unique chronicle of her time.

Neel was fiercely democratic in selecting her subjects, who represent an extraordinarily diverse population ― from such legendary figures as Joe Gould to her Spanish Harlem neighbours in the 1940s, the art critic Meyer Shapiro, Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, Andy Warhol, and major figures of the labour, civil rights and feminist movements ― producing an indelible portrait of twentieth-century America. By dictating her own terms, Neel was able to transcend such personal tragedy as the death of her infant daughter, Santillana, a nervous breakdown and suicide attempts, and the separation from her second child, Isabetta. After spending much of her career in relative obscurity, Neel finally received a major museum retrospective in 1974, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York.

In this first paperback edition of the authoritative biography of Alice Neel, which serves also as a cultural history of twentieth-century New York, the author Phoebe Hoban documents the tumultuous life of the artist in vivid detail, creating a portrait of the artist as incisive as Neel’s relentlessly honest paintings. With a new introduction by Hoban that explores Neel’s enduring relevance, this biography is essential to understanding and appreciating the life and work of one of America’s foremost artists.

A Handbook to the Art Market

The new look on the history of art and its blind spots, the far-reaching digitization of structures and content, the changing role of museums and art criticism, new forces from influencers to NFTs: Hardly any market system has evolved as profoundly in the last decade as the distribution of art.

With 25 years of experience in the art industry, Dirk Boll acts as a continuous chronicler and seasonal commentator of these pervasive developments. His handbook Art for Sale is a reliable source of in-depth knowledge about the inner workings of global art market systems. How do auctions, the network of galleries, and fairs work? How are prices being made, and how do trends both in the production of art as well as its collection emerge? What is more, the updated and revised new edition provides comprehensive information on the practical issues of art acquisition: What are the customs and pitfalls, the economic interdependencies between the artists, buyers and other market players, and the legal regulations governing the trade with art?

About the Author:

Dirk Boll (*1970, Kassel) studied law in Göttingen and Freiburg im Breisgau. After his postgraduate studies in cultural management, he received his Ph.D. for a thesis on the structures and legal framework of art markets. In 1998, he began his career at Christie's in London and has held various management positions since then. Since 2022, he is the Board Member for 20th and 21st Century Art for EMEA (Europe & UK, Middle East & Africa). Boll is professor of Cultural Management in Hamburg, a member of the Academic Board of Christie's Education as well as External Examiner of Kingston University, London.

Theorists and artists from Jack Halberstam to Peter Rehberg consider the fruitful cross-pollination of video, punk, queerness and gender politics

Since the 1970s, the medium of video and multimedia art practice has been closely linked to the subcultural and countercultural movements. Art and music videos in particular demonstrate great subversive potential: artists and musicians oppose traditional values, exploring and repeatedly transgressing social norms and gender stereotypes. This publication reviews artistic strategies in the context of a history of punk and its offshoots, combining scholarly opinions from the fields of art history, queer theory, media studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies on an equal footing with field reports from the practice of alternative archives and artistic image essays.

About the Authors:

Jack Halberstam is a professor of gender studies and English at Columbia University.
Angela McRobbie is a professor at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Become inspired, find your voice, and create work that matters.

Why are human beings driven to make?

It’s as if we collectively intuited, long before science gave us the language, that the universe bends toward entropy, and every act of creation on our part is an act of defiance in the face of that evolving disorder.

When we pick up a paintbrush, or compose elements through our camera viewfinders, or press fingers into wet clay to wrestle form from a shapeless lump, we are bending things back toward Order and wrestling them from Chaos.

But making things is often not enough.

We also want the things we make to be filled with meaning. We’re each trying to describe what we know about life, to create a collective sense of “safety in numbers.” When we reach the end of our traditional descriptive powers, it’s time to weave collective meaning from poetry, painting, writing, dancing, photographing, filmmaking, storytelling, singing, animating, designing, performing, carving, sculpting, and a million other ways we daily create Order out of the Chaos and share it with each other for comfort.

On this journey we need a creative philosophy which will help us find our voice, discover our message, deal with the responses to our work, maintain inspiration, and stay mentally healthy and motivated creators as we strive to find “the meaning in the making.”

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Order
Chapter 2: Logos
Chapter 3: Breath
Chapter 4: Voice
Chapter 5: Ego
Chapter 6: Control
Chapter 7: Attention
Chapter 8: Envy
Chapter 9: Critique
Chapter 10: Feel
Chapter 11: Shadows
Chapter 12: Meaning
Chapter 13: Time
Chapter 14: Benediction

About the Author:

Sean Tucker is a professional photographer and filmmaker based in the United Kingdom.

Это одно из первых фундаментальных исследований природы фотографии и одновременно оммаж покойной матери автора. Интерес к случайно попавшей в руки фотографии 1870 года вызвал у Барта желание узнать, благодаря какому существенному признаку фотография выделяется из всей совокупности изображений. Задавшись вопросом классификации, систематизации фотографий, философ выстраивает собственную феноменологию, вводя понятия Studium и Punftum. Studium обозначает культурную, языковую и политическую интерпретацию фотографии, Punftum - сугубо личный эмоциональный смысл, позволяющий установить прямую связь с фотоизображением.

Как изменился культурный ландшафт после появления глобального супермаркета? Что произошло с современным искусством после Энди Уорхола, с поп-музыкой – после Нирваны и MTV, с кино – после «Звездных войн»?
И так ли важны сегодня, когда лейбл на вашей майке ценнее ее фасона, старые понятия вкуса и стиля?

Ответы на эти вопросы предлагает в своей книге Джон Сибрук, колумнист журнала New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Village Voice. Его исследование – путеводитель по современной культуре, в которой информационный шум оказывается важнее самого события, качество равно актуальности, и уже никто не в состоянии отделить продукт от его позиционирования, а культурную ценность – от рыночной стоимости.

Добро пожаловать в мир Nobrow! Мир, в котором вы уже давно живете, хотя и боитесь себе в этом признаться!