In January 2016, at the annual meeting held by the Trustees of the A. G. Leventis Foundation and the members of the Honorary Committee of the A. G. Leventis Gallery, the Gallery’s Director, Loukia Loizou Hadjigavriel, the Curator of the Paris Collection, Myrto Hatzaki, and the collaborator in Paris, Sylvie Hartmann, presented an ambitious plan designed to bring a lost masterpiece to life. The Jacquelin de Montluçon Project was conceived as a research and exhibition program that would bridge the gap between academic discovery and the desire to address a broad public. Intended to transform the recent findings of art-historical research into an engaging traveling exhibition, it promised to bring together scholars and museum experts, broaden the understanding of the oeuvre of an outstanding 15th-century artist and illuminator and revisit the panels of the lost altarpiece created for the Antonine monks of Chambéry, currently housed among four European museums. The project set the pace for an extensive journey of research, restoration and planning, under the guidance of Professor Frédéric Elsig of the University of Geneva and with the collaboration of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chambéry, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the A. G. Leventis Gallery in Nicosia. As the project progressed, the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France [C2RMF] in Paris also came on board, undertaking the X-raying and digital scanning of the panels, as well as the analysis of colors and pigments used by the artist, adding valuable information about the creative process behind the panels.

Text in English and French.

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium has evolved from a single institution (founded by decree in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte) into a world class, multi-museum showcase for art in Belgium.  Over the past century, they have actively acquired a superb collection of modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, videos, and installations. Featured here are work by, among others, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Joseph Albers, Donald Judd, Lucio Fontana, Pierre Alechinsky, Marcel Broodthaers, and  Luc Tuymans.

(Re)discover Art Nouveau at the heart of Brussels. At the end of the 19th century, the anti-academic movement pushed Brussels’ architects towards Art Nouveau. Both Victor Horta, in an organic style, and Paul Hankar, in a more geometrical tendency, created an architecture that quickly gained an international reputation. In a little more than a decade, from 1893 on, hundreds of Art Nouveau-fashioned buildings appeared in Brussels, elaborated first by the great pioneers and later by their students and imitators who are also influenced by the Vienna Secession and other trends of European Art Nouveau. At first, this style fulfilled industrial bourgeoisie’s dreams, yearning to assert itself in the city’s structure through this new, and sometimes exuberant, architecture. This book offers nine walks to discover – in different districts – the multiple aspects of architectural Art Nouveau in Brussels. Witness the personal style of the most important architects as well as decorative methods such as sgraffito. Through interviews with owners, custodians and restorers of Art Nouveau-styled buildings, Brussels Art Nouveau describes the fundamental guardians of this remarkable heritage.

In five complementary contributions, recognized authors draw a fascinating and complex picture of contemporary jewelry in the twenty-first century. Through a rich palette of themes, works, reports and concepts from current art practices, they illuminate the conditions and interconnections of education, making, presentation, marketing and networking in design and art using the example of the New Zealand Handshake project. This book will enrich and bring pleasure to all who are interested in the visual arts in their broadest sense! Handshake is a unique mentoring programme in the art world, in which established artists spread their knowledge to less experienced protégés. The knowledge accumulated in this exchange, of a relationship based on feedback, is realized in exhibitions and joint projects. Exhibition at The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt (NZ), 5th August to 3rd December 2017. www.http://handshakeproject.com/ https://handshake3.com/”

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.

Moniker

mon·ick·er / [ mon-i-ker ]

a person’s name, especially a nickname or alias.

“In the street art world everyone is equal and they don’t wait for official approval. They are artists in every sense of the word, whether they are painting in their own backyard or a huge illegal mural on the street for all the world to see.” Frankie Shea

“Moniker Art Fair has caused a stir internationally by providing an art fair environment for the sort of work normally overlooked by the traditional art world.” Katie Antoniou, Run-Riot

This groundbreaking platform dismantles the elitist barriers prevalent in the art world, offering artists an unbiased space to showcase their creations. This book reflects on Moniker’s impressive saga, from upstart art fair to critical support infrastructure for the urban art community. For that next generation of artistic outsiders, those who are pounding at the gates to be let in, Moniker can act as an inspiration. Few have done as much as Moniker to position urban art as accessible, historically significant, and exciting.

This volume collects the papers presented at the international study conference Sculpting in the Renaissance: an art to (com)move / Sculpter à la Renaissance. Un art pour (é)mouvoir organized by the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Castello Sforzesco in Milan to accompany the exhibition Le corps et l’âme. De Donatello à Michel-Ange. Scultures italiennes de la Renaissance (Officina Libraria, 2020), held between 2020 and 2021. With the involvement of some of the most important specialists in Renaissance sculpture, the aim was to investigate the interactions, influences and exchanges between the plastic arts and other Renaissance art forms capable of revealing feelings through expressions of the body, trough the works of Agostino di Duccio, Donatello, Michelangelo and other local sculptors. The aim is also to place within their social, devotional and intellectual context the different manifestations of feeling of which sculpture is one of the privileged media. Sacred art themes in particular were addressed, in an attempt to explain their formal evolution in relation to the socio-cultural transformations of the time, but also to local traditions and their dramatization.

Text in English, French and Italian.

This gorgeous book highlights seventy works from an important private collection built over more than four decades with discipline, curiosity, and passion. It is one of the finest private collections of African art from West and Central Africa, through South Africa and Madagascar. Conceived around four main themes – Governance and transmission, Protection and caring, Coming together (celebrating, partying, judging and praising), Serving and beautifying – this selection offers a capacious general introduction to the topic of African art and furthers our understanding of the artworks’ source cultures.

The beautiful photographs of the seventy works in the first part of the publication are followed by a whole chapter dedicated to some important avant-garde photography masterpieces showing the narrow relationship between this movement and nine fascinating African art works belonging to the collection. The objects are shown side by side with renown works from Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Lajos Kassák, Hannah Höch, Erwin Blumenfeld, Maurice Tabard, Karl Blossfeldt and Robert Doisneau.

Striking a balance between often published and lesser-known masterpieces from the collection, the present volume unveils to the public a selection of seven contemporary artist-photographers (Jean Marc Tingaud, Louis Tirilly, Nicolas Bruant, Roger Ballen, Groupe Street Collodion Art, Coco Fronsac, and Frédéric Vidal) who have been asked to represent, in a contemporary and personal style, for the first time, nine renowned works.

Text in English and French.

Interactive installation art is an important medium of artistic expression, generated alongside the development of technology and art throughout the 21st century. This book includes a number of interactive installation projects, dedicating particular attention to how designers convey their message.

Instead of accepting information passively, in an interactive installation the audience is encouraged to communicate directly with the art. This book is divided into three parts: immersive installation (environment), experimental installation (technology), and feedback installation (engagement). Featuring examples drawn from 3D-rendered images, photographs and video projects, this book will explain the relationship between art and technology, and explore some of the ways these fields can be combined. It is a high-quality and practical guidebook, to accompany any interactive installation art exhibition.

This book includes a cross-section of projects from outstanding global design agencies such as teamLab, Dem, and Random International. When placed in conjunction with testaments from practising designers, these examples provide a comprehensive introduction to interactive installation art.

For centuries, art, design, and architecture have been used to transform, illuminate, preserve, and make sense of the world in which we live. Art and design, much like travel, are acts of discovery, invitations where influence, healing and enchantment are all possible. And as we travel, these art forms connect us to the unknown, deepening our comprehension and appreciation of the places and people we visit. The 28 hotels featured in this book creatively embrace art in its many forms to provide authentic reflections and experiences for every guest. The World’s Best Art & Design Hotels is dedicated to the influence, discovery, and power of art and design, as we travel — bon voyage!

As an emerging contemporary art discipline, installation art, with its characteristics of creation materials and forms, brings artists great creative freedom. In recent years, installation works have appeared frequently in various exhibitions and are an important part of contemporary art history that cannot be ignored.

In response to the call of the times, Contemporary Installation Art is a collection of excellent installation artworks from all over the world, with both panoramic complete form drawings and detailed displays, as well as graphic designs or hand-drawn drawings, aiming at conquering the readers with the charms of the artworks themselves and conveying the artistic concept that “real artworks originate from life and are higher than life”.

‘As a painter I use a realist technique, but the emblems I invent are not real. They are purely imaginative… Painting is a thing of the mind. My realism is not nature, or landscape, or still life, but the psychological world.’ – Agustín Fernández. At the time of his death in 2006, Agustín Fernández (b. 1928) ranked among Cuba’s most outstanding artists. Defying simple categorization, today his work is most recognizable for its ambiguous and precariously balanced forms, erotic overtones, surreal juxtapositions, and metallic palette. This superbly illustrated book is the first comprehensive study of Fernández’s work, and includes contributions by renowned critic Donald Kuspit and a team of experts. Fernández’s work has been exhibited throughout Europe and North and South America, and is represented in major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His work found a wider audience when one of his larger paintings was featured in the 1980 Brian de Palma film, Dressed to Kill.

When the American art world turned toward abstract art and action painting, Francis Cunningham remained focused on figurative art and the human form. His interest never waned. This book chronicles his development over an astonishing seven decades. Presented in a nonlinear order, the arc of his work is there for the discerning eye to see. Landscapes, still life, and human forms are interrelated. Cunningham’s work reveals the connection between abstraction and representation. Their coexististence is the material and subject of this book, disclosing a new understanding of American painting by a living artist.

Accompanying over 180 high quality reproductions, the artist’s many facets are explored in essays by art historians and art critics, including Christopher Knight, Edward Lifson, John Walsh, and Valentina De Pasca, as well through the reminiscences of one of his life models, Regina Hawkins-Balducci.

Cunningham attended the Art Students League of New York, where he studied drawing and anatomy with Robert Beverly Hale and painting with Edwin Dickinson. He became an influential master instructor, cofounding the New Brooklyn School of Life Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (1977-1983) and the New York Academy of Art in 1983. At his current age of 90, he continues to paint in his studio in Manhattan and in the rural western part of Massachusetts, known as the Berkshires.

This is the first monograph devoted to his work.

Devotional art has permeated the everyday life in India for centuries. A variety of divine forms and expressions by contemporary artists continue the tradition of depicting the rich mythology of Hinduism and the traditions that it has inspired. This color-rich volume catalogues the collection of devotional art held in the Museum of Sacred Art located in the Belgian Ardennes. The collection represents well-known traditional painting styles of India like Nathadwara, Mithila, Patachitra, Mysore, Tanjore and Kerala, executed by renowned artists such as B.G. Sharma and Indra Sharma, Bharti Dayal, G.L.N Simha, K.S. Shreehari. Many emerging talented artists like Brindaban Das and Tilkesh Sharma are also exhibited. The museum also holds excellent examples of Mysore inlay work, metal icons and stone sculptures, Newari art from Nepal/Tibet, Ramkien-inspired leather cut-outs from Thailand and masks and puppets from Indonesia – a valuable addition to the collection, displaying the spiritual and cultural connection shared by these places with India. Of particular interest is the section on art of the Hare Krishna Movement, which blends Indian and Western styles in creating a new vocabulary for devotional Indian art.

This volume accompanies the Art Brut CUBA exhibition organized by Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne and features essays by Cuban authors and other experts, reproductions of works and previously unpublished letters from the collection’s archives.

The exhibition represents a voyage of discovery that explores the world of outsider art in Cuba more than 40 years after the first exhibition, which came about as a result of Jean Dubuffet’s desire to gather together in Collection de l’Art Brut works by self-taught Cuban artists assembled by his friend Samuel Feijóo, the curator of the 1983 exhibition.

Being an island with a distinctive history that has long been isolated for political and economic reasons, Cuba is a fertile breeding ground for artistic creations unaffected by the traditional artistic influences of the world outside.

The exhibition is divided into two sections: the first presents historical works by the Signos Group, founded by Samuel Feijóo in the late 1960s to promote popular Cuban culture through the graphic arts; the second presents works by contemporary outsider artists from the Riera Studio. Most of the works on display are made from recycled materials – cardboard packaging, newspaper, scrap metal, recycled waste – or natural materials, such as wood and jute fiber.

The works reflect the artists’ personal experiences, the economic, social and political circumstances of their country, and their inner worlds and obsessions. They offer an alternative and authentic view of Cuba, far from the stereotyped imagery associated with this nation.

Text in English and French.

This catalog presents masterpieces of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, ceramics, lacquers, and textiles from two of America’s greatest Japanese art collections, which are featured in a landmark exhibition at the Asia Society in New York. Impermanence is a pervasive subject in Japanese philosophy and art, and recognizing the role of ephemerality is key to appreciating much of Japan’s artistic production. The dazzling range of art and objects in this beautifully photographed exhibition catalog show the broad, yet nuanced, ways that the notion of the ephemeral manifests itself in the arts of Japan throughout history. Insightful contributions from noted scholars explore the aesthetics of impermanence in religion, literature, artifacts, the tea ceremony, and popular culture in objects dating from the late Jomon period (ca. 1000-300 B.C.E.) to the 20th century.

Contents:
The Art of the Ephemeral;
Works in the Exhibition:
I. Retrieving Lost Worlds; II. Buddhism: Perpetual Impermanence; III. Tea: Choreographed Ephemerality; IV. Transforming Impermanence into Art.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Asia Society Museum, New York, between 11 February and 26 April 2020.

For the very first time an overview is published featuring the works of Belgium’s finest street art and graffiti artists.
Belgian Street Art Today contains a selection of works made by 50 selected artists, such as Roa, Djoels, Dzia, Jaune, Mata One, 2 Dirty, Bué The Warrior, Joachim, Zenith…  
Some of these artists are working around the globe and have received international acclaim; a few of them are even represented by prestigious art galleries abroad.
The selection is preceded by a brief history of street art and a never-before-published comprehensive overview of street art projects and street art and graffiti walks in Belgium. Therefore this book is a must-have for art lovers looking for insider tips and unique experiences.
For more than two years, photographer Vincent Willems crisscrossed Belgium in search of the most spectacular interventions and murals, a passion culminating in this stunning book. 

In a former shipyard of 8,000 square meters at the ultra-hip NDSM Wharf in Amsterdam, you will find Europe’s largest street art museum: STRAAT. Yearly an impressive 200,000 visitors admire their collection of over 180 works by around 170 artists, many of which were specially created for this location. As STRAAT’s collection is constantly refreshed and expanded, it’s time for a second catalogue featuring only new works by about 80 artists. Divided into chapters by genre—muralism, art and activism, native/nature, abstract graffiti, and installations—and interspersed with essays by experts like Steven P. Harrington, Carlo McCormick, Charlotte Pyatt and Christian Omodeo, this book is a wonderful anthology of the key figures in the contemporary street art scene.

As some American artists began to eliminate people and remove extraneous details from their compositions, they often employed neat, orderly brushwork or close-up, unemotional photography. Artists as diverse as Patrick Henry Bruce, John Covert, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand and Arthur Dove navigated European and American avant-garde circles, picking and choosing new ideas and methods. Inspiration ranged from cubism and machine parts to new technologies, and they found ways to bring order to the modern world through extreme simplification.

For them, abstraction involved absence and presence – the evacuation of human beings but also the desire to depict something that would not otherwise be visible or to render visible unseen natural processes like the passage of time, sound waves, or weather patterns. Their artworks provide a new context for the precisionist works in the subsequent sections and point to modern ideas about what art could be. How does a crisp painting technique relate to an aesthetic of absence?

Bombay Art Deco Architecture presents a treasury of Art Deco buildings comprising residential, commercial and civic architecture. These monuments were created during the mid ’30s and ’40s, a glamorous and optimistic era that predated the official end of the British Raj. The architects, a small list of first-generation Indian architects and builders, were mostly educated in English schools and trained in western architectural traditionst. Impatient with the British reluctance to shed the Gothic and Indo-Saracenic architectural styles that had dominated Imperial Bombay’s urban landscape, these visionaries were determined to imbue the city with a new modern style. That style shares its provenance with the Art Deco architecture of Miami Beach, termed ‘Tropical Deco’ by author Laura Cerwinske in her seminal 1981 book. Built in the same era, the Art Deco architecture of the two cities exhibits similar scale, geometry, tropical vocabulary, and love of romance.

Madhubani art’s origin is believed to go back to the ancient era of the Ramayana, when the town was decorated by inhabitants of the region for the wedding of Lord Rama and Sita with elaborate wall paintings and murals. The philosophy of Madhubani art is essentially based on the principle of dualism. The artscape appears inundated with divine deities, the sun and moon, and flora and fauna along with features found in Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, tantric symbols and classical Hinduism. Primarily a significant socio-cultural engagement for the womenfolk of Bihar, this art was a welcome break from their daily drudgery. Immersed in the folklore of Mithila, fresh forms and figures are painted and repainted on walls and floors of their homes to mark special occasions. Well-established procedures are followed and techniques are passed on from one generation to the next, keeping the ephemeral art form and ancestral tradition and its lore alive. Madhubani artists today are seen to work more with brushes and acrylic paint rather than natural dyes and pigments. They now also work on paper, cloth, canvas and wood to create art and artifacts, besides painting on walls and floors. Contents: Foreword by H.E.M.S. Puri, Ambassador of India in Belgium; Preface by Martin Gurvich; Imaging the Divine: Artscape of Bharati Dayal by Sushma K Bahl; Krishna; Shiva; Ganesha; Devi; The Mahabharata Nature; Bharati Dayal.