Showing titles in History & Criticism

This is the beautifully told story of charismatic and unconventional pop artist Martin Sharp, from his lonely privileged childhood to the heady days of the underground magazine Oz to Swinging London and beyond. Sharp blurred the boundaries of high art and low; he drew rock stars and reprobates into his world, collaborated with Eric Clapton, obsessively championed eccentric singer Tiny Tim, was haunted by Sydney's Luna Park and, paradoxically, became a recluse whose phone never stopped ringing.

It is an enthralling and unexpected selection, and the anthology resonates beyond this showing. It is from the Eric and Louise Franck collection, which has been donated to the Tate, and is part of the process by which the gallery has very belatedly, but with almost overwhelming enthusiasm, entered into collecting and showing photography as a medium in in its own right, with a very active patrons group supporting acquisitions. One of the benefits of Tate joining the fray is evident in the installation of this show.

After Andy is Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni's insider's account of working in Andy Warhol's studio and Interview magazine and explores Warhol's impact on the art world, pop culture, society, and fashion - and how his iconic status gave rise to some of our most influential tastemakers today.

A review of the exhibition "A Celebration of Life...and Death" by Andy Warhol (1928-1987), held at the National Gallery of Modern Art Edinburgh in October 2007. Text by Nicholas James, contributions by Lucy James.

Désormais confronté à la dispersion des lieux de culture, à la diversité des œuvres présentées, à leur nombre croissant tout comme à celui des publications qui les concernent, le public paraît aujourd'hui déboussolé par l'irruption de l'art contemporain. Que penser en effet de ces chefs-d'œuvre qui n'en sont peut-être pas ? Ou plutôt : comment les penser ?

Thirty thousand years ago our prehistoric ancestors painted perfect images of animals on walls of tortuous caves, most often without any light. How was this possible? Scholars and archaeologists have for centuries pored over these works of art, speculating and hoping to come away with the key to the mystery. David and Lefrre give us a new understanding of an art lost in time, revealing what had until recently remained unexplainable - the oldest enigma in humanity has been solved.

The Tazza Farnese is one of the most admired objects from classical antiquity. A libation bowl carved from banded agate, it features Medusa's head on its outside and, inside, an assembly of Egyptian gods. For more than two millennia, these radiant figures have mesmerized emperors and artists, popes and thieves, merchants and museum goers. In this, the first book-length account of this renowned masterpiece, Marina Belozerskaya traces its fascinating journey through history. That it has survived at all is a miracle.

You are the artist! In this unique series of books - you are the artist. As you listen through this adventure you can draw, sketch, color, make patterns, and create as much as your imagination allows. In this adventure, Sam dreams of going to space. Who or what is Sam? How does Sam get in to space? What does space look like? Who does he meet? Create your own illustrations, drawings, and sketches as you enjoy exploring space with Sam.

In 1882, there was an artistic explosion of creativity in Europe. To a poor girl, Maria, and her alcoholic, prostitute mother, Sien, in The Hague, Netherlands, that didn't mean much until one winter evening when her mother brought Vincent Van Gogh to their home. Before his stint in Paris with the bohemian painters of his day, Van Gogh tried for a family life while learning the trade of art. Seminary school was a failure, and his cousin, Klee, had rejected his romantic advances.

Since the publication of her prize-winning memoir, Craft for a Dry Lake, writer and artist Kim Mahood has been returning to the Tanami desert country in far north-western Australia where, as a child, she lived with her family on a remote cattle station. The land is timeless, but much has changed: the station has been handed back to its traditional owners, the mining companies have arrived and Aboriginal art has flourished.

Realism is the quality of representing a person, thing, or situation accurately, or in a way that is true to life. Realism is one of the finest styles of art, and it has had moving affects on how artwork is created through today. This writing is very informative and serves as a great reference for art enthusiasts all around the world.

Thanks to Salem sea captains, Gilded Age millionaires, curators on horseback, and missionaries gone native, North American museums now possess the greatest collections of Chinese art outside of East Asia itself. How did it happen? The China Collectors is the first full account of a century-long treasure hunt in China from the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion to Mao Zedong's 1949 ascent.

Throughout art history, certain creative geniuses have helped to steer art in a completely new direction - and their influence has in many cases been extraordinary, enduring down the centuries to impact on future generations of artists, sculptors and architects. This lavish publication looks back over the centuries to explore the life and work of some of history's most influential artists.

Etta and Claribel Cone had an eye for art that was unparalleled at their time, and they left Baltimore what is perhaps the best gift the city has ever received: their collection.

Josh Blaylock's now classic how-to prose book about the business of comic book publishing, after selling out of its updated 2012 edition, is now being rereleased to include Tim Seeley's companion writings on the behind-the-scenes realities of being a comic book artist.

On September 20, 1940, one of the most famous European art dealers disembarked in New York, one of hundreds of Jewish refugees fleeing Vichy, France. Leaving behind his beloved Paris gallery, Paul Rosenberg had managed to save his family, but his paintings - modern masterpieces by Cézanne, Monet, Sisley, and others - were not so fortunate. As he fled, dozens of works were seized by Nazi forces, and the art dealer's own legacy was eradicated.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Face of Britain by Simon Schama, read by Simon Schama and Roy McMillian. Churchill and his painter locked in a struggle of stares and glares; Gainsborough watching his daughters run after a butterfly; a naked John Lennon five hours before his death. Simon Schama has written a tour de force about British portraits over the centuries.

>Luminous and revealing, a daughter's memoir of the art world and a larger-than-life father. Gabrielle Selz grew up in a home full of the most celebrated artists of the 1960s and 1970s: Rothko, de Kooning, Tinguely, Giacometti, and Christo. Her father, Peter Selz, was the chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. Selz's father was vibrant and freewheeling, but his enthusiasm for both women and art took its toll on their family life.

Falling into Place tells of a world after an unspecified but high-impact event that has displaced people and caused those who survived to reassess how to live their lives from then on. Referencing a dystopian poignant wake-up call, bound in an engrossing novella that offers an extraordinary insight into a rich and intriguing artistic practice. (Book Works)

In The Language of Things, Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, decodes the things around us: their hidden meanings, our relationships with them, how they shape our lives and why we desire them. Design is everywhere. It seduces, pleases and inspires us. It makes us part with our money. It defines who we think we are. An iPhone, an anglepoise lamp, a Picasso, a banknote, an Armani suit, a William Morris textile, a Lucky Strike packet, a spacecraft - every object tells a story.