Paper Art III contains the wonderful works of dedicated paper artists from all over the world since 2018, exploring the infinite possibilities of paper, an ancient and common material in daily life, allowing people to rediscover the breathtaking beauty of the ordinary and perceive the survival and growth of paper in art. The exquisite paper cutting, spectacular paper sculpture, collision of photography and paper art techniques… each piece of paper artwork will be cohesive in the work of the artist’s time and effort to present the full extent of the work.

In addition to existing as pure artwork, this book also shows how paper art can be used in a variety of applications. From house decoration to window decoration, to large-scale public space decoration, etc., these cases give readers the opportunity to understand and feel how the artist creates a rich sense of space, enhances environmental aesthetics, and even changes the urban temperament by changing the color and shape of the paper.

Mounting and housing of works of art on paper have always had an important influence on both the survival and the appreciation of the work. Many dangers of a physical, biological and chemical nature await unprotected works of art on paper and specialist mounting provides the primary way of safeguarding them. Also, since the way in which works are presented to the public affects their perception of them, mounting of works of art can contribute significantly to the success or failure of an exhibition. A variety of problems, solutions, past practice and future developments in the mounting, storage and display of artworks on paper are considered in this volume of thirty-one articles presented at a conference at the British Museum*. These include the significance of mounting in the historical study of prints and drawings, the preventive care of paper artifacts, their aesthetic presentation and the management of paper collections. This volume (originally published in 2005) can be considered a companion volume to Conservation Mounting for Prints and Drawings: A Manual Based on Current Practice at the British Museum by Joanna M. Kosek (Archetype Publications 2004). Both volumes are essential tools for the owner, collector, curator, conservator and all professionals who deal with works of art on paper. *Conference entitled: Mounting and Housing Art on Paper for Storage and Display: History, Science and Present-Day Practice.

According to medieval theologians, faith is a deadly serious business. Humor and virtue are irreconcilable, because laughter is uncontrollable and escapes the control of reason. A modest smile is permitted. But laughing loudly, grinning and grimacing: these are the playing field of the devil – just as pernicious as other uncontrollable urges, such as physical love or the addiction of the gambler. That is the domain of the peasant or fool.

In the late Middle Ages, every right-thinking town-dweller knew the difference between the peasant and the fool. Peasants are innocently gullible, primitive, throwing themselves into feasting, gorging, drinking and sex. The peasant is the antithesis of the cultivated urbanite, who fastidiously controls his urges – and who therefore above all must not laugh too loudly. Only during Innocents Day parties or Shrove Tuesday celebrations is it permitted for urban partygoers to play the fool and to show their ‘underbelly’.

In contrast to the peasant, the fool escapes the existing order. He holds up a mirror to the self-declared wise citizens, because ‘the fool reveals the truth through laughter’, even though it may be hidden between piss and shit, sex and snot. It is for precisely this reason that Erasmus, in his In Praise of Folly writes not as himself but through the persona of Folly, a broad back behind which the wise person can hide when he denounces social problems. Laughter thus alters the world.

In this context, the fool and irony became important motifs in medieval art, especially in the Low Countries. This original art book is illustrated with dozens of top-quality works by Flemish masters from worldwide collections.

Curator Marc Donnadieu turns his critical gaze on Tornabuoni Art gallery’s post-war masterpieces and proposes a project based around the notion of creative destruction; a way of making that led to a total renewal of art in the aftermath of the Second World War. The exhibition is articulated around a simple alphabet, where 25 works by 22 Italian and international artists are assembled in a trilingual alphabet, with each letter introducing an artist and a disruptive action to which he or she has subjected the artwork: Enrico Baj “attacks” and Alberto Burri “burns”, while Arman “vandalizes” and Tancredi “zigzags”. This list, which is by no means exhaustive, is merely the starting point for an infinite repertoire of iconoclastic artists and verbs.

The curator also pays homage to one of Tornabuoni Art’s most beloved artists: Alighiero Boetti, whose apparently playful works allow us to confront deep philosophical issues. Opening 30 years to the day since the artist’s death, An alphabet of order and disorder looks outwards to the world and to a new generation confronted with its uncertainties.

Text in English and French.

Speed, colour, noise, excitement. Art Of The Race, V14 encapsulates the very essence of Formula 1 motor racing through the lens of Darren Heath, one of the sport’s most celebrated photographers. Art Of The Race captures the key moments and rarely seen footage of each race as the season unfolds, whether it’s the epic battle between Mclaren teammates Hamilton and Rosberg, or the humbling drivers’ gathering in support of their colleague Jules Bianchi.

The papers in this volume are from the 2014 biennial ATSR symposium held in Amsterdam which focused on art technological sources and their aid to research. The papers focus on using source material to research works of art such as artist’s notebooks, workshop inventories and documents on the trade in artists’ material from the middle ages until today. They show the importance of source material for art historical as well as material-technical or conservation research to highlight the coherence between the style of a work of art and the materials and techniques used in its production. Ultimately, concluding that the disclosure of such source material is of paramount importance for both art-historical as well as material-technical and conservation research.

Buddhist Art of Gandhara is a scholarly catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum’s important but still largely unpublished holdings of the Buddhist sculpture and related art of the historic Gandhara region (modern North West Pakistan / East Afghanistan) in the early centuries AD (c. 0-600 AD). This region was a major center of Buddhist culture and facilitated the transmission of Buddhism and its art from India via the Silk Road to Central Asia, China and the Far East. The book contains introductory essays, with additional illustrations, suitable for the general reader as well as the specialist. Contents: General introduction; 1. Stupas and reliquaries; 2a. Life panels; 2b. Panels and fragments; 3a. Buddhas; 3b Bodhisattvas; 4. Stuccos; 5. Bronzes; 6. Deities; 7. Household objects; Bibliography; Index.

This catalog for a show at the Tornabuoni Gallery in Paris pays homage to two outstanding Italian women artists of the second half of the 20th century, Carla Accardi Dadamaino (Eduarda Emilia Maino). Both embraced avant-garde art and theory while remaining free of dogmatism, and explored the characteristics and possibilities of painting and signs while forging their own distinct paths. They shared a strong belief in social and political involvement, and left an enduring mark on the history of art. In this book, their creative journey is beautifully illustrated with a vast selection of works and through contextual critical analyses.

Text in English and French.

Art pushes boundaries and so does skateboarding. This book explores this philosophy by showcasing skateboard-inspired artists and their work from around the world. From artists working in the skateboard community to freelancers being influenced by it. From traditional pencil to digital drawing. They all have one thing in common: skateboarding. Skate & Art, following bestseller Surf & Art by Veerle Helsen, is curated and written by Michele Addelio, editor of Backside skate magazine who explores the skate scene outside the mainstream. In his online publication he has interviewed over 50 skateboard-inspired artists. This experience laid the foundation to continuously discover the diversity and beauty of the two art forms colliding.  

Published on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of the Rosetta stone, this book responds to the ever-growing enthusiasm and curiosity for Egyptomania.

This concept refers to a collective imagination which was nurtured throughout the 19th and 20th centuries by archeological digs and exploratory trips. These key discoveries were crucial for creation and particularly for the Art Deco artists who found their inspiration in Egyptian lines and patterns.

Art Déco & Egyptomanie explores the origins and functioning of this cultural and artistic movement shaped by many fields: architecture, cinema, sculpture, popular art, theater and fashion.

Art Déco & Egyptomanie comes with an explicit and previously unseen iconography.

Text in French.

The career of Y.G. Srimati – classical singer, musician, dancer and painter – represents a continuum in which each of these skills and experiences merged, influencing and pollinating each other.

Born in Mysore in 1926, Srimati was part of the generation much influenced by the rediscovery of a classical Sanskrit legacy devoted to the visual arts. Soon swept up in the nationalist movement for an independent India, she was deeply moved by the time she spent with Mahatma Gandhi. For the young Srimati, the explicit referencing of the past and of religious subjects came together in an unparalleled way, driven by the conscious striving for an indigenous agenda. This experience gave form and meaning to her art, and largely defined her style.

As John Guy demonstrates in this sumptuous volume, as a painter of the mid and late twentieth century, Y.G. Srimati embodied a traditionalist position, steadfast in her vision of an Indian style, one which resonated with those who knew India best.

The common thread running right through this work is man’s link with the land, the legacy of the ancestors that still echoes in the present. It is no accident that Before Time Began is one of the expressions used by Aboriginal artists in central Australia to refer to the creation of the world, in an oneiric sense. Understanding and following this underlying bond enables the reader to explore the art’s narrative content in its association with dreams and the passage of time, elements that inevitably distinguish the temporal dimension in the different societies. But it is also a way of exploring the first stirrings of contemporary art in an Aboriginal context through works made at the beginning of the 1970s in Arnhem Land and in the territory of the Papunya, as well as more recent paintings by artists living in the APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara). These last examples in particular highlight the fusion between contemporary art and traditional customs, in which ancestral knowledge is fused with elements drawn from the inevitable march of progress.

“Within its 276 pages, you will discover how thousands of years of Chinese history and culture manifest in his designs. Noted author and jewelry specialist Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld takes the reader on an intellectual, art historical, and sensual journey as she traces Yewn’s early career and rise to acclaim” — IGI GemBlog

“A first-of-its-kind art book narrating worldly and philosophical Han Chinese culture in the language of jewellery art.” — Arts & Collections

“A preeminent and harmonious collaboration with text by renowned jewelry historian Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld and artistic direction by trailblazing designer Dickson Yewn results in a one-of-a-kind book, Yewn: Contemporary Art Jewels and the Silk Road.” — Private Air Magazine

Dickson Yewn is the quintessential modern-day literatus. His contemporary jewelry is a crystallization of thousands of years of Chinese material history. Square rings rub shoulders with antique porcelain forms, shapes taken from Ming furniture and the geometric latticework found in Chinese architecture. Yewn focuses on these traditional Chinese motifs, but also understands the significance of different materials. Wood, one of the five elements in Chinese philosophy, is present in most of his collections.

To wear a contemporary jewel by Dickson Yewn is to delve back into China’s works of art and its history, blended with a contemporary twist. This new monograph of his work details the inspiration Yewn has drawn from the Imperial court, exploring its influence on the art of jewelry, from silks, embroidery, painting, architecture and cloisonné enamel to courtesan culture. Beautiful, detailed illustrations and photographs highlight Yewn’s fealty to the artisanal techniques employed by the Imperial courts. Esteemed jewelry writer Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld invites the reader to explore the deeper symbolism behind Yewn’s jewels.

Lavishly illustrated catalogue of the world- renowned artists and designers associated with the Royal College of Art, London, arguably the most influential art and design school in the world.

This issue of Metaphysical Art – The de Chirico Journals no. 21/22 (2022), centers around Giorgio de Chirico’s correspondence with his friend Fritz Gartz (1909–1911), which has been transcribed and translated into English. A related essay by Simonetta Antellini discusses de Chirico’s writing style and use of the German language. Other essays include Fabio Benzi’s examination of Florence’s cultural milieu in the years 1910–1911, which analyzes the musical, artistic, literary, and philosophical context in which Metaphysics was born. Elena Pontiggia presents a large and previously unpublished collection of letters written by de Chirico to his mother Gemma Cervetto, which has recently been acquired by the Foundation. Riccardo Dottori’s article offers a new interpretation of the painting Serenata (1910), based on a fresh literary source: On the Cave of the Nymphs by the ancient Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry. Completing this volume is a narrative essay by Italo Calvino entitled Cities of Thought (1983), translated into English and introduced by Anne Greeley, which was published alongside a major Paris retrospective of de Chirico’s metaphysical works.

What is the relationship between the Holy Trinity and social media? How do hashtags influence us? Why are we so inclined to use filters? Why do we treat digital images differently than analogue ones? Art history offers a beginning of answers.

Instagrammable explores the paradox of looking without seeing and seeing without looking. Koenraad Jonckheere examines trust in and distrust of images, drawing on 2,500 years of thinking about visual art. In eleven chapters, he examines the world of digital images through numerous intriguing examples from art history.

The Meaning of the Earth offers a retrospective on the lives and work of the relentlessly controversial artists, placing them within the context of twentieth century British culture. Wolf Jahn tells the story of how Gilbert & George found their identity in opposition to pervasive ideas around social conformity and religion after meeting in 1967.
The artists staged an internal revolution, mining their psyches to create visionary and unwaveringly modern art. The ‘two people but one artist’ ask the questions that gnaw at us all: ‘Where do we come from?’, ‘Who are we?’ and ‘Where are we going?’ The book meditates on the artists’ role in this century, connecting their beginnings as Living Sculptures to their pictorial work of today.
The Meaning of the Earth is a continuation of Jahn’s 1989 work, The Art of Gilbert & George. The author writes a playful philosophical interrogation of Gilbert & George’s work that truly grasps its cosmic scale.

Tornabuoni Art Paris opens 2023 with an exhibition dedicated to the relationship between art and poetry, examining the case of Giuseppe Ungaretti, on the 110th anniversary of his arrival in Paris, a defining moment in his literary career.

The catalog, with texts by Alexandra Zingone, literary critic and curator of the exhibition, tackles the analysis of the art of the ‘short century’ with a global view, taking into consideration the constant dialog between the various exponents of the cultural world.

Through passages from critical texts by Ungaretti as an interpreter of art, the volume follows the exhibition among the many works by contemporary artists, including Giacomo Balla, Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico, Piero Dorazio and others.

Throughout his multidisciplinary career, Ungaretti found himself indiscriminately analyzing various genres, including Futurism, Metaphysical, Informalism, Socialist Realism and Expressionism of the Roman School.

The exhibition develops around the poet’s pieces, in some cases in the form of original manuscripts and first editions.

Accompanying the volume is an extremely rich iconographic and archival apparatus accompanies the reader in discovering a virtuous example of the links that have always existed between literature and the visual arts.

Artists of Nigeria analyzes the influence of different art systems (museums, cultural institutions, art fairs, galleries, the internet) and cultures on the development of modern and contemporary Nigerian art in the past 100 years. Organized chronologically, and including biographical notes on the artists and lavish color illustrations, this unprecedented book charts the development of modern Nigerian art, and analyzes the works of significant Nigerian artists and art movements within the country and beyond. This comprehensive overview demonstrates the variety and vitality of Nigerian artists and confers on them a visibility they are often denied in global publications. Among the artists featured are Olowere, whose work is in the collections of the British Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution; Chike Aniakor, who has a PhD from Indiana University; and Uche Okeke, whose work has been shown at the Sherman Gallery at Boston University.

The Barbier-Mueller Collection of Pre-Columbian art, recently auctioned at Sotheby’s, is the most comprehensive collection of its kind. Comprising some 300 works from Mexico, Central, and South America – wood and stone sculptures, ceramics, textiles, and ritual objects – it spans 1200 BC to AD 1500. The Barbier-Mueller Collection, one of the most important and wide-ranging art collections in the world, was begun by Josef Mueller in Paris in 1908 with the purchase of works by Hodler and Cézanne; the Swiss Mueller then looked beyond Western art and bought his first pre-Columbian piece, an Aztec stone water goddess, in 1920. Today, Mueller’s daughter and son-in-law, Monique and Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, continue to collect Western, African, Oceanic, and Cycladic art, which is frequently on loan to museums around the world. Text in English and French.

Maria Lai (Ulassai, September 27, 1919 – Cardedu, April 16, 2013) is without doubt one of the leading figures in the history of contemporary Italian art. Not only on account of the content of her works, but also thanks to the diversity of her artistic approach, ranging as it does across many media – public art, embroidery, weaving, sculpture, drawing, and writing: all are grist for her poetics. The book is published to coincide with the exhibition at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, which is presenting to the general public over one hundred works by the Sardinian artist, from the early 1960s to her very last works, and explores the various themes dear to the artist with the contributions of experts in their fields: the locations, the creation, and publication of art books, her public art events and her relationship with the written word and her own writing. Her entire oeuvre is distinguished by its powerful visual impact, revealing a ‘way of doing art’ that is nothing other than an instrument of thought. The book’s structure reflects the exhibition’s own sections, arranged by theme, whose titles are paradigmatic of Lai’s oeuvre as a whole: Essere è tessere. Cucire e ricucire; L’arte è il gioco degli adulti. Giocare e raccontare; Disseminare e condividere; Il viaggiatore astrale. Immaginare l’altrove; L’arte ci prende per mano. Incontrare e partecipare.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the MAXXI Museum, Rome, 19 June 2019-12 January 2020.

Text in English and Italian.

Art of the Street – London is the first in a series celebrating the phenomenon of street art in the world’s greatest cities. A photographer’s view of London’s transient street art scene shot over a two year period from 2013. Celebrating the vibrancy, creativity and color of the movement and documenting a time and place in its history. Artist’s work include Stik, Thierry Noir, Jimmy C, Alice, Otto Schade and Nunca with many more both celebrated and unknown. These books show the color, detail and skill in these works, showcasing the talents of these contemporary artists.

Renowned art critic Manasij Majumdar has admired Dutta for many years, and is, the author admits, one of his favorite artists. His work is looks spontaneously home-grown, yet modernist at the same time. The lucidity of his vision finds expression in paintings and drawings that resonate with something that is native to the Indian soil. The works featured here come from collections in both Kolkata and Delhi, as well as the artist’s personal collection. This catalog has been published in association with Sanchit Art Gallery in New Delhi.