The Buddhist Art Forum – a major international gathering that explored the interrelation between the nature, creation, function, and conservation of Buddhist art from its earliest manifestations to the present – was held at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2012, sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation and attended by artists, scholars, historians, conservators, officials and monks.

The aims of the Ho Foundation to promote the understanding of Buddhism and of The Courtauld to air the complex challenges of preserving Buddhist art are well served in the papers presented at the conference and contained in this volume which cover the form, function, conservation and display of Buddhist Art.

This book is a unique and comprehensive illustrated dictionary of French Art Nouveau Ceramics.

A census conducted in 1901 indicated the existence of some 209 producers of pottery in France, employing a total of around 5,800 full-time labourers. This great activity stimulated a parallel development in the arts, including the search for new expressions in art pottery, giving birth to l’art nouveau, a great and eclectic synthesis of a number of other art styles. Largely through British arts and crafts, and the work of artists like the Manxman Archibald Knox, it reached far back into the prehistory of Celtic art. To this were added later medieval elements, through the gothic revival championed by William Morris.

The need for renewal, breaking away from the neo-Classical and academia, which was the realm of the upper-class culture, was largely theorised by John Ruskin, who searched elsewhere for inspiration. Thus did British art nouveau also partake of Chinese and Japanese styles, though never in so forceful a manner as did the French aesthetic. France, on the one side, looked back to the swirling and frivolous eighteenth century Rococo, primarily through the influence of the Goncourt brothers, Edmond and Jules, influential aesthetes of the mid-nineteenth century.

The book focuses especially on artists working stoneware or grès, faience, and terracotta. It aims to provide a general survey of the many artists working in these areas, and includes brief accounts of the ceramics work of sculptors and painters whose wider output is already well known.

This book addresses a phenomenon that pervades the field of art history: the fact that English has become a widely adopted language. Art history employs language in a very particular way, one of its most basic aims being the verbal reconstruction of the visual past. The book seeks to shed light on the particular issues that English’s rise to prominence poses for art history by investigating the history of the discipline itself: specifically, the extent to which the European tradition of art historical writing has always been shaped by the presence of dominant languages on the continent.

What artistic, intellectual, and historical dynamics drove the pattern of linguistic ascendance and diffusion in the art historical writing of past centuries? How have the immediate, practical ends of writing in a common language had unintended, long-term consequences for the discipline? Were art historical concepts transformed or left behind with the onset of a new lingua franca, or did they often remain intact beneath a shifting veneer of new words?

Includes 10 essays in English, four in Italian, and one in German. 

Text in English, German and Italian.

Art of the Cameroon Grasslands unveils the artistic creativity of a region of West Africa through the Weis Collection. With texts by Peter Weis and Bettina von Lintig, and a contribution by Michael Oehrl, the book is a comprehensive overview of Grasslands Art.

In contrast to many other African regions, the works of the artists of the ethnic groups that live in the Grasslands are characterized by enormous diversity, dynamism, movement, asymmetry, power, and even unbridled wildness. Other works radiate tranquillity, offering the viewer uncommon visual pleasure and delight. For centuries, kingdoms and rulers in this region competed to create new works of art or perfect inherited styles. These works served cultural, profane, and representational purposes, and they reflected the social and ruling structures of the Grasslands—aspects that the book’s essays and descriptions go into in detail.

A broad spectrum of objects and their uses are reflected in the Weis Collection. It includes everyday objects, works of folk art, ritual, and cult objects such as magic or commemorative figures, masks, posts, palace doors, representational objects, musical instruments, tobacco pipes, and drinking horns.

The introduction presents important aspects of the cultural and artistic development of each object’s region of origin, also in the context of European colonization. All are illustrated with numerous field photographs. This is followed by an essay on beaded artworks from the Grasslands, a subject that has been little researched to date. As the Grasslands are embedded in a larger cultural area, objects in the collection from neighboring ethnic groups are also presented, in many cases shedding light on centuries-old connections and artistic exchanges.

Tibetan Buddhist art is not only rich in figural icons but also extremely diverse in its symbols and ritual objects. This first systematic review is an abundantly illustrated reference book on Tibetan ritual art that aids our understanding of its different types and forms, its sacred meanings and ceremonial functions. Eighteen chapters, several hundred different implements are documented in detail, in many cases for the first time and often in their various styles and iconographic forms: altar utensils and amulets, masks and mirrors, magic daggers and mandalas, torma sculptures and prayer objects, vajras and votive tablets, sacrificial vessels and oracle crowns, stupas and spirit traps, ritual vases, textiles, furniture, and symbolic emblems. These are accompanied by many historical and modern text sources, as well as rare recorded oral material from high-ranking Tibetan masters. This long-awaited handbook is a must-have for all those with an interest in Buddhist art and religion.

Mari Ishikawa sees a parallel world off the beaten track of everyday living that she wants to make visible with her art. Such counter-worlds are discovered in photographs with long exposures, which are taken up in art jewelry. Together these pairings result in an overall picture that is almost mystical. Silver casts taken from nature are reborn as jewelry in combination with diamonds, pieces of charcoal, or paper. Thus Mari Ishikawa interrupts for a brief moment the flow of transience; a precious object is created that has been wrenched from the cycle of life and death to stand for itself and for the moment.

The Wellby Bequest, received by the Ashmolean Museum in 2013, consists of some 500 precious and exotic objects, mainly from Continental Europe, from the late medieval to the rococo, and is the most remarkable accession of this kind of material to any museum in the UK since the bequest of Ferdinand de Rothschild to the British Museum in 1898 (the Waddesdon Bequest). The collection was assembled by three generations of the Wellby family with an intention that it should reflect the great princely treasure chambers (Kunstkammer) preserved in Dresden, Vienna, Innsbruck, and elsewhere. Many of these objects have never been previously published. This beautiful and accessible book introduces over sixty of the prime pieces from this astonishing addition to the Ashmolean, presenting material of the type incomparably superior to anything in other UK museums outside London. Both authors are specialists in European decorative arts of the Renaissance and later periods.

Published to coincide with the opening of the new Wellby Bequest Gallery in the Ashmolean Museum September 2015

Contents: Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction to the Michael Wellby Bequest (by Timothy Wilson); Introductory essay on the Kunstkammer tradition (by Matthew Winterbottom); 50 catalogue entries on highlights of the Wellby Collection; Glossary, Bibliography; Index

Geared towards young readers and families, Myths, Angels, and Masquerades explores themes including religious art, landscapes, still-life painting, and portraiture. It accesses these topics through forty-seven works of art, chosen from the collection of The San Diego Museum of Art. Interactive features provide opportunities for further investigation, while “Your Turn” activities invite you to try your own hand at creating art inspired by the work of past masters.

The effervescent, creative synergy among Italian artists and designers in the post-war, post-fascist period is the subject of this exhibition catalogue for a show in Paris held at the end of 2019. Forty works of avant-garde art and design highlight the common aspirations and experimental spirit of this visionary generation, featuring artists and works that mirror each other in their approach to the world. Included here are works by Lucio Fontana, Carlo Mollino, Ettore Sottsass, Gaetano Pesce, Carlo Scarpa, Gino Sarfatti, Dadamaino, Alighiero Boetti, Mimmo Rotella, Gio Ponti, and Piero Manzoni, among others. In this show, Italian artists, architects, and designers reveal their exceptional ability to overturn the boundaries between art and design. Their visionary modernism is still influential today.

The Ashmolean Museum is fortunate in having the most comprehensive British collection of the art of the Indian subcontinent outside London. Especially strong in sculpture, this rich representation of Indian art from prehistory to the twentieth century has come about through the generosity of our benefactors over more than three centuries. The Museum’s first major Indian sculpture acquisition, a stone Pala-style Vishnu image of the eleventh century, was given in 1686 by Sir William Hedges, a governor of the East India Company in Bengal. From the late nineteenth century, a substantial core of the present collection was assembled at the University’s former Indian Institute Museum (1897-1962), precursor of the Department of Eastern Art, which opened within the Ashmolean in 1963. Since that date many more Indian objects of all periods have been acquired by gift, bequest or purchase.

Contents: Introduction; Prehistoric South Asia; The Northwest; North & Central India; Eastern India and Deccan; Miscellanea; Bibliography.

Relationships between architects and clients – built upon expressed values, as well as their import into the final work of architecture – are typically not discussed in architectural education, rarely considered in architectural criticism or theory, and usually missing in most writing about architecture. This monograph seeks to highlight and address this deficiency. The book focuses on the process that the firm uses to help their clients to define values, and to intone them through architectural design. Exquisitely presented throughout, this volume presents a range of built and in-process works at a variety of scales, complexity, and locations, with various clients. Most of these projects have not been previously published. The projects will be documented and discussed within the context of the value proposition and design process that distinguish Pickard Chilton’s approach to architecture.

“It is often said that great things take time and after a twelve year hiatus from publishing, renowned artist Swoon has returned with the must-have monograph, THE RED SKEIN.” — Quiet Lunch
In 224 pages, with more than 200 color images, this book explores the work of Caledonia Curry, also known as Swoon, and her aim “to bring a human presence to the street in a delicate way”. Covering her works on the street and in the studio, animation projects, collaborations, museum installations and community-based projects, The Red Skein is the most interesting and valuable collection of the artist’s works. Of particular interest is “Persephone, Medea, Hecate: Constructing a crossroads for art and psychedelic-assisted therapy”, an intimate and moving text in which Caledonia explains her background and what art means for her.
The in-depth book includes an introduction by bestselling author Dr Gabor Mate, a Hungarian physician with huge expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress, and childhood development. There are also essays by RJ Rushmore (one of the youngest and most respected critics of street and graffiti art in the world), Melena Ryzik (New York Times reporter who was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on workplace sexual harassment), Jerry Saltz (American art critic, senior art critic for The Village Voice and columnist for New York magazine) and Pedro Alonzo (Boston-based independent curator and Adjunct Curator at Dallas Contemporary). Other contributors include Hans Ulrich Obrist (director of Serpentine Gallery, Art curator, critic and historian of art), Jeffrey Deitch (art dealer and curator, director of the Moca 2010-2013) and Judy Chicago (feminist artist, art educator and writer).

‘That this is a legitimate question, even a necessary one, is argued by Vergara in a pleasurable manner, with the pace and attitude of a peripatetic thinker. There is something here that reminds one of Montaigne or Stendhal.’ – El País

Throughout history, human beings have excelled at creating art of the highest quality. Aristotle wrote that Homer “surpassed all others” and Pliny the Elder referred to “masterpieces that we never tire of admiring”. Velázquez distinguished between portraits “made with art” and those that were not. What did they all mean exactly? What do we mean when we say that a work of art is good, of high quality? This book is an attempt to explain this central question, which remains surprisingly unexplored.

Alejandro Vergara-Sharp argues that “a deep knowledge of the history of art provides us with the tools to approach this issue objectively”. He then invites the reader to share with him a Socratic voyage of discovery, gradually unveiling arguments that can assist us in understanding this elusive and crucial concept.

“Neural networks do not understand what optical illusions are.” – Technologyreview.com

“Some pictures tell a thousand lies.” – hplyrikz.com

An optical illusion confuses the eye by pretending to be something it isn’t. It both misleads and deceives the brain, which is trying to make sense of the information the eye is sending. This book presents a selection of brain-bending optical illusions featuring graphic art and photography by 60 artists, and includes an overview of the history of optical illusions in art.

Chosen for the 59th Venice Biennale, to represent contemporary creation at the Lebanese pavilion Ayman Baalbaki is a Lebanese artist born in Beirut in 1975. He first trained at the Institute of Fine Arts of the university Lebanese school in Beirut, then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Five years after his arrival in France, he received the silver medal in painting at the Francophone Games and then participated in several exhibitions worldwide. Lebanon, France, Great Britain, Argentina, Egypt and Niger are all countries that welcome the works of the artist.

His productions of the last 10 years have been compiled through this unpublished work, published in French, English and Arabic. The authors endeavor to decipher his paintings and installations, crossed by societal issues specific to Lebanon: war, abortive revolt, political and financial bankruptcy, the tragedy of the port of Beirut or even pandemic. The artist paints anonymous portraits of his contemporaries, which have today become symbols of the Middle East. It represents the city, its buildings, erected, but also in ruins. His art is vibrant, dynamic and textured.

Text in English, French and Arabic.

This volume reveals the roles of foreign and Indian Jews in the Indian national art project and raises issues such as: Is an “Indian artist” any artist born into an Indian family? What role can foreigners and members of Indian minority groups play in the Indian National Art Project as scholars, critics, or artists? Is a piece of work “Indian art” because of its subject matter or its style? Is it possible to utilize “foreign techniques” in creating “Indian art”? Jews and the Indian National Art Project documents the work of artists such as Anna Molka Ahmed, Mirra Alfassa (The Mother), Siona Benjamin, Carmel Berkson, and Fredda Brilliant as well as those of photographers (David Mordecai and Man Ray) and architects (Otto Königsberger, Moshe Safdie). Also covered in this volume are the work of critics, scholars and art patrons like Ernst Cohn-Wiener, Charles Fabri, Stella Kramrisch, and Marion Harry Spielmann.

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was a radical inventor: an artist who discarded convention and disrupted hierarchies, overturning the traditional basis of culture while revolutionising the way people perceive and interact with art. Calder’s ‘new line’ was not simply an evolution of forms and styles. From the start, it was quite clear to all who witnessed him at work that – in his way of drawing attention and gaining notoriety – he was doing something radically new. This catalog shows how Calder’s work emerged from expectations of change in American popular culture. Calder, who was initially attracted by the structure and functions of the circus, looked for alternative models to triumph over respectability, public decorum, and the ambitions of industry. The catalogue, with twelve essays from major contributors, will examine how Calder, among the first college-trained artists, found techniques and inspiration in many disciplines and their development: technology, engineering, architecture, physics, and astronomy, among others. All these contributed to the development of his wire sculptures, mobiles, and stabiles. More than 100 works and comparative illustrations will guide the reader through this innovative and unique path.

This two-volume set marks Jo Farb Hernández’s fifty years of scholarship on art environments and the capstone of her work on self-taught artists who have built art environments in Spain. Singular Spaces II evolved from her 2013 book, Singular Spaces. Together these works constitute an encyclopedic exploration of Spanish art environments and an epic narration of the stories of those who made them.

Singular Spaces II introduces and examines 99 artists and their intriguing and idiosyncratic sculptures, homes, and gardens, most of which have never been thoroughly documented or previously published. The author has cast a wide net to ensure all regions of Spain are represented, as are all kinds of spaces assembled with all kinds of materials.

These sites are developed organically, without formal architectural or engineering plans: they are at once evolving and complete. Often highly fanciful and quixotic, the work is frequently characterized by incongruous juxtapositions, the result of a dynamic approach to creation that may appear impulsive and spontaneous. But these artists and their works have much to teach us about the process of creation and also about the confidence to undertake a path radically different from the one they had followed during the prime of their working lives.

Hernández combines detailed case studies of the artists and their work with contextualized historical and theoretical references to a broad range of interlocking fields, including art, art history, anthropology, vernacular architecture, Spanish area studies, and folklore, complemented with compeling visuals of each of the artists and their artworks. Breaking down the standard compartmentalisation of genres, she reveals how most creators of art environments, building within their own personal spaces, fuse their creations with their daily life in a way generally unmatched in any other circumstances of making art, in the process providing an open self-reflection of their life and concerns. The universality of the need to create, and the issues that are confronted when one does so in a public and non-sanctioned way, are relevant to art and artists worldwide.

In this collection of photographs taken in over 36 countries, Christer Löfgren explores the international art of graffiti and wall paintings. From his base in Stockholm, Sweden, Löfgren travels to places where street art can be found, including places like the Antarctic, Greenland, and Svalbard, where you may not expect to see it. The book addresses the current duality of opinion about street art: it is still viewed as a criminal act in many places, and yet at the same time it is accepted as a valid and important art form. It crosses boundaries to unite communities all around the world. Organized in two sections, the first section of this book explores the methods and motivations behind the work, while the second section focuses on street art in specific countries around the world.

The publication explores a spectrum of contemporary Indian creativity classical inspired, tribal, folk and popular arts, reflective of the rootedness and innovation within traditions, as well as new media work in varied manifestations and genres. It features several especially commissioned works and seminal essays by experts framed within the context of the history, philosophy and ideology of the culture, the art stems from. It examines the connection between art and spiritual ideologies and living traditions as they continue to be practiced and celebrated or questioned by hundreds of artists, in a multi faith context. The artists’ biographical sketches and their photographs, the bibliography and other reference material, make it a collectors’ delight and a useful stand-alone resource book, first of its kind, on spiritual and devotional Indian art with its multilayered philosophical, mystical and cultural resonance. Contents: Volume I: Foreword – Karan Sing; Spirituality and Culture: India’s Gifts to the World Martin Gurvich; Acknowledgements – Martin Gurvich and Sushma K. Bahl. Essays: Adi Anadi Anant: Continuum Sushma K. Bahl; Abodes of Devotion George Michell; Imaging Devotional Theologies Kenneth R. Valpey; Devotion in Art, Craft and Textiles Jaya Jaitly; Popular Expressions of Devotion Devdutt Pattanaik; Collection A to M; Artists; Glossary; Bibliography; Index. Volume II: Foreword – Prof. Lokesh Chandra; Essays: Dashavatara:The Ten Incarnations of Vishnu Steven J. Rosen; Archetypal Imagery in Neo-Tantric Painting Madhu Khanna; Syncretic Culture and Islam Mushirul Hasan; Vernacular Art: Work, Leisure and Devotion in Rurban India Annapurna Garimella; Methods and Materials of Traditional Painting Desmond Lazaro; Iti-iti: Multiple Contemporaries in Sacred Indian Art Sushma K. Bahl; Collection N to Z; Artists; Cartographic Overview: Select Devotional Art and Cultural Centres in India; Credits; Index.

Italian and American Art focuses on the period between 1930 and 1980 in particular. By comparing artworks and examining exhibition and gallery policies, political meddling, and figures linking Italy to the United States, a common thread emerges which held two worlds that were literally an ocean apart but in constant touch as they explored each other’s movements contributing to art, from Futurism, Concrete art, and Abstract Expressionism, to Nuclear art, Pop art and Spatialism.

Brussels is well known for its wide variety of buildings in the Art Deco style, which were built in the aftermath of the Great War in the 1920s and 1930s. In this book, the authors have created seven walking (or biking) itineraries that explore Art Deco and modernist architecture in neighborhoods throughout the city. Several key architects are profiled, and the historical context of the period is discussed, offering readers new insights into the living heritage that lines the streets of Brussels.

Also available: Brussels Art Nouveau ISBN 9782390250456.

Burst! Abstract Painting After 1945 looks at the close, but previously unexplored relationship between Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel. Through texts and close to 100 illustrations, the book describes a vital creative exchange across the Atlantic that would entirely redefine painting. Big, expansive, paint-splattered surfaces; spontaneous actions captured on canvas; new ideas of freedom. A story of post-war recovery and Transatlantic dialogue. On both sides of the ocean, society was reacting to the horrors of the Second World War, the Holocaust and the coming of the atom bomb. The book shows how artists searched for new ways to deal with these shattering events. With works by Jean Dubuffet, Natalia Dumitresco, Helen Frankenthaler, Asger Jorn, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Barnett Newman, Georges Mathieu, Hedda Sterne and Clyfford Still, and more.