Books

Few artists tried as hard as Claude Monet (1840–1926) to capture light itself on canvas. The painter of whom Cézanne said “only  an eye, but my God what an eye!” he stayed true to the principle of absolute fidelity to the visual sensation, painting...

Matthew Affron (Author) With contributions by Cécile Debray, Alexander Kauffman, Michael R. Taylor, and John Vick This book offers an engaging and accessible introduction to one of the twentieth century’s greatest and most enigmatic artists, Marcel...

First monograph of the African-American artist, renowned for her representations of black femininity, whose spectacular pop patchworks deconstruct and recompose the everyday feminine/masculine relationship in its domestic dimension, with seven essays and...

In 1874, a group of artists held their first groundbreaking exhibition in Paris. With their vibrant, loose brushwork and focus on capturing fleeting moments of light and colour, the Impressionists revolutionised the art world. Critics initially had...

Told through the lives of three remarkable artists devoted to the pursuit of liberty, an illuminating new history of the ideals that fired the American Revolution. The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with...

The story of the wildest experiments in early photography and the wild people who undertook them. Today it’s routine to take photos from an aeroplane window, use a camera under the sea or gaze at an X-ray. But the innovations more than a century...

Perfect for students and casual and professional artists, with lots of great reference information for print collectors as well, this is the ultimate guide to the ins and outs of every variety of printmaking practiced today. In addition to in-depth...

An insightful and long overdue reassessment of the full scope of the career of Robert Indiana, who combined Pop Art, hard-edged abstraction, and language-based conceptualism The popularity of Robert Indiana’s LOVE works made the Pop artist a household...

From Game Boy to Gucci American advertising in the naughty 1990s From the Los Angeles riots to the Columbine High School massacre, Americans witnessed events and purchased items that reflected the best and worst of the decade. Bill Clinton’s presidency...

A Legacy in Stone Castles and fortresses of medieval Europe Follow photographer Frédéric Chaubin as he embarks on a unique, century-spanning journey through Europe. Featuring images of more than 200 buildings in 21 countries, Stone Age. Ancient Castles...

The little house first stood in the country, but gradually the city moved closer and closer. This picture book about the changes that come to a little house is beautiful and timeless.  In 1942, Virginia Lee Burton created the Little House, and since...

Three soldiers come marching down the road towards a French village. The peasants, seeing them coming, suddenly become very busy, for soldiers are often hungry. All their food is hidden under mattresses or in barns. Then follows a battle of wits, with...

 A vibrant exploration of the world's newest language—where it came from, how it works and where it's going. We are surrounded by emoji. They appear in politics, movies, drug deals, our sex lives and more. But emoji’s impact has never been explored...

Despite what society says, human beings were born to create and have been doing so since ancient times. Beginning with cave paintings, people have documented their culture and heritage regardless of geography, as seen in intricate Indian miniature...

Art museums have played a vital role in our culture, drawing on Enlightenment ideals in shaping ideas, advancing learning, fostering community, and providing spaces of beauty and permanence. In this thoughtful and often personal volume, Daniel H. Weiss...

The catalogue of the Swiss Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. At the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, artist duo Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz will transform the Swiss Pavilion into a...

Ten years of multimedia installations and performances from a Berlin-based duo. Berlin-based artist duo Pauline Boudry (born 1972) and Renate Lorenz (born 1963) work across film, installation, sculpture and dance to create their politically charged...

A celebration of the joyful power of African American quilts, featuring images of over 100 quilts, new research and essays The first publication dedicated to historical African American quilts in California, Routed West traces the flow and flourishing of...

This screen-printing kit and step-by-step guide has been developed by Luckies with Print Club London so that anyone can design their own t-shirts, tea towels, bags and banners, whether or not they’ve printed before. Includes reusable templates and...

From his early self-portraits to his site-specific installations, this volume underscores Rashid Johnson's fearless engagement with the central themes, questions and aesthetics of the contemporary era Co-organized by the Guggenheim New York and the...

A celebration of the rich twentieth and twenty-first-century tradition of screen-printing as a means of artistic expression, from its commercial origins in 1920s America to the limited-edition screenprints of the postwar period and today. Screenprints: A...

 A nonfiction graphic novel that tells the story of a century of revolutionary contemporary art. How did a urinal become art? And a can of tomato soup, a tent, a pickled shark. . . . How did what seemed like a prank at the New York Armory Show of...

A new comprehensive overview of expressionism, tracing its evolution from the nineteenth century to the present day. Expressionist artists believed in art's ability to communicate emotion, irrespective of any representational or narrative content. In...

A thrilling journey through 100,000 years of art, from the first artworks ever made to art’s central role in culture today. Art can help us see the world differently or understand our place in it a little more clearly. It can move us emotionally,...

Add Papier's Pause PU leather bookmark to your product assortment - the perfect blend of style and function for book lovers and note-takes alike. This elevated bookmark keeps your place while offering a calming break during reading or writing. Ideal for...

A captivating journey of the expansive world of medieval travel, from London to Constantinople to the court of China and beyond. Europeans of the Middle Ages were the first to use travel guides to orient their wanderings, as they moved through a world...

Philadelphia, the Revolutionary City explores the lived experiences of Philadelphians leading up to, during, and after the fight for independence, showcasing written documents as well as material culture, from diaries and journals to political cartoons,...

 From New York street artist to pop culture sensation: the essential, accessible guide to KAWS The multidisciplinary artist KAWS is regarded as an emblem of postmodern art. Many consider him as the Andy Warhol of the 21st century. Throughout his...

Massaging the Consumer The digital future of ads in the extravagant 1980s With the cold war ebbing, crime and inflation at record levels, and movie star-turned-President Ronald Reagan launching a Star Wars of his own, the 1980s did not seem likely to...

Disco and Discovery Ads of the 1970s get funky and socially conscious Both eclipsed and influenced by television, American print ads of the 1970s departed from the bold, graphic forms and subtle messages that were typical of their sixties counterparts...

Americana in Full Bloom To the moon and back with advertising in the 1960s With the consumerist euphoria of the fifties still going strong and the race to the moon at its height, the mood of advertising in the sixties was cheerful, optimistic, and at...

Advertising in the Atomic Age From “The World’s Finest Automatic Washer” to the Cadillac which “Gives a Man a New Outlook” As McCarthyism swept across the United States and capitalism was king, white America enjoyed a feeling of pride and security that...

Dress Codes The ultimate compendium of clothing from the 18th to the 20th century Clothes define people. A person’s attire, whether it be a sari, kimono, or business suit, is an essential code to his or her culture, class, personality, even faith...

A selection from the memoir of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, the renowned eighteenth-century French portraitist and one of the most important women painters in art history In her memoir, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun offers a candid and thoroughly...

This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality. In the artist’s only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting...

Alex Pilcher’s A Queer Little History of Art is a beautiful book that illustrates the wide variety of queer art from around the world exploring bodies and identity, love and desire, and prejudice and protest through drawing, painting, photography,...

An expansive account of the ever-popular mid-century movement, from the place where it all began Embark on a surprising and joyful visual tour of American mid-century modernism through hundreds of photographs, drawings, and pieces of ephemera organized...

Mood Marks The painterly gestures of personal feelings Hailed as the first American-born art movement to have a worldwide influence, Abstract Expressionism denotes the non-representational use of paint as a means of personal expression. It emerged in...

Between Heaven and Hell Hieronymus Bosch’s meticulous visions of the grotesque, debauched, and divine As cryptic as they are compelling, the masterpieces of Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) remain some of the most enduring enigmas of the art world. Their...

The need-to-know names of Japanese graphic design from the late 19th century to the pre-digital decade, presented alongside more than 500 color images of vintage ephemera With Fracture, author Ian Lynam presents a survey of Japanese design across a...

A world without plants is a world without life, both literally and figuratively. Besides forming the very basis of human survival on Earth, they are also an important source of creative inspiration, ingenuity, and expression. From scientific explorers...

  All about the Belle Époque Delicate illustration that defined an era With his instantly recognizable decorative style, Czech artist and Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) defined the look of the fin-de-siècle. In evocative shades of...

This is the story of the African-American Montier family, which traces its roots to Philadelphia’s first mayor, a white Quaker named Humphrey Morrey, and includes generations of Black activists, artists and scholars. The important story of an...

Featuring nearly forty full-color reproductions of Thomas Sully’s portraits, and drawing upon previously unpublished archival material, Thomas Sully’s Philadelphians brings to life the people who participated in the history of early-nineteenth-century...

As the companion to the exhibition, Fighting for Freedom places Black craftspeople at the forefront of American history, from before the Revolutionary War through the Civil War and beyond Reconstruction. Delving into diverse narratives of creativity,...

Diego Rivera’s America revisits a historical moment when the famed muralist and painter, more than any other artist of his time, helped forge Mexican national identity in visual terms and imagined a shared American future in which unity, rather than...

The authoritative and wide-ranging visual essay on the aesthetics of Japan, a classic volume now back in print with a stunning new cover design ‘Japan style’ is an aesthetic recognizable to everyone: a beautifully displayed flower, an elegant...

No longer a catalog, but an intimate window into how and why Nakashima Woodworkers do what Nakashima Woodworkers do. THe Process Book acts a first step in understanding our foundations and identifying what you hope to achieve in working with us. Defined...

Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table. M. F. K. Fisher knew that the...

The main character of this extraordinary graphic novel is not a person but an idea—the school of Bauhaus, which arose in the wake of World War I, and emerged as the fundamental reference point for virtually every avant-garde artistic movement that...

A pocket-sized history of the great fashion house, Dior, covering over 70 years of excellence. Little Book of Dior is the pocket-sized and beautifully illustrated story of 70 years of opulent fashion. Christian Dior's spectacular rise to the upper...

More than four decades after the passing of Monuments Woman Captain Rose Valland (1898–1980), one of the great heroines of World War II, the Monuments Men and Women Foundation released the first-ever English translation of her 1961 memoir, The Art Front:...

An homage to the design pioneers who defined the Mid-Century aesthetic through their work in furniture, glassware, ceramics and textiles More than 50 years later, the fascination with mid-century design is stronger than ever before. Explore the popular...

Midcentury masterpieces from the inventors of the Eames chair Best known for their contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial design, film and photography, Charles and Ray Eames remain among the most renowned American designers of the...

Exquisitely illustrated and expertly written, Little Book of Schiaparelli follows a biographical chronology detailing the eccentric and influential designer's life, career, and primary creative themes of her work. .Little Book of Schiaparelli chronicles...

'Haute couture is like an orchestra, whose conductor is Balenciaga. We other couturiers are the musicians and we follow the direction he gives' - Christian Dior The godfather of conceptual design, a master of shape, a true fashion game changer – all are...

Forms on the front line Architecture and design in the context of WWII Founded in 1928 as a “living diary” by the great Milanese architect and designer Gio Ponti, domus has been hailed as the world’s most influential architecture and design journal. With...

The Modern Home A complete retrospective of the Case Study Houses program The Case Study House program (1945–1966) was an exceptional, innovative event in the history of American architecture and remains to this day unique. The program, which...

An unprecedented, substantial, and extraordinary celebration of more than a century of fascinating product and industrial design, as shown through their detailed original patent documents - the ultimate 'flick book' of modern design with hundreds of...

Sculptural Structures Eero Saarinen’s new dimensions The creator of the ubiquitous Knoll “Tulip” chairs and tables, Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) was one of the 20th century’s most prominent space shapers, merging dynamic forms with a modernist sensibility...

The Way We Wore The story of modern fashion from couture to mass market The 20th century saw fashion evolve from an exclusive Parisian salon business catering for the wealthy elite into a global industry employing millions, with new trends whisked into...

The creative duo Charles Eames and Ray Kaiser Eames transformed the visual character of America. Though best known for their furniture, the husband and wife team were also forerunners in architecture, textile design, photography, and film.   The...

Explore the modern age of design in this Bibliotheca Universalis edition  of the 20th century’s key movements and trends. Featuring countless  works from around the world, this is an essential compendium for design  aficionados everywhere,...

Curator and critic David Anfam’s crucial exploration of the Abstract Expressionist movement, updated to include scholarship of the past decade and a half Abstract Expressionism is arguably the most important art movement since the Second World War...

No German painter evokes such strong emotions as Caspar David Friedrich: his evening skies remain icons of longing, his mountain vistas testaments to the grandeur of nature.  He inspired Samuel Beckett to write Waiting for Godot and Walt...

In early modern Japan, cultural salons were creative spaces for people of all ages and social levels to pursue painting, poetry, and other artistic endeavors as serious but amateur practitioners. All using a pen- or art-name, individuals were able to...

A hilarious celebration of cats in artwork from medieval times. Look what the cat dragged in from the Middle Ages—a curious compendium of cats unlike any you’ve ever lapped up before. Here’s the purrfect bedside companion for cat...

Brimming with stunning reproductions and illuminating texts, this handy and accessible book is the perfect introduction to the famous Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. Albrecht Dürer (1471–1521) is considered the most important German painter and...

An omnibus edition collecting fifteen volumes of Hokusai's dedicated drawing manuals, also known as e-tehon. Best known for woodblock prints such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the ninteenth-century artist Hokusai was prolific in other media. Of...

A visual journey through Zen’s influence on Japanese life, from calligraphy to the martial arts Formed by a convergence of the Buddha’s teachings with Taoism and local tradition, Zen has had a profound impact on the art and culture of Japan...

Five centuries of fascinating female creativity presented in more than 400 compelling artworks and one comprehensive volume The most extensive fully illustrated book of women artists ever published, Great Women Artists reflects an era where art made by...

Drawing on thousands of never-before-translated letters and unpublished sources, this biography reveals dramatic new information about the life and work of one of the late nineteenth century’s most important painters. Despite being mocked at the...

A window into the world of functional everyday design The designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa have compiled 204 everyday objects in search of “super normal design”: alongside examples of anonymous design like the Swiss Rex vegetable...

Examining aesthetic connections between the works of more than 50 Black artists from throughout the global diaspora This book was born out of frustration with art histories that emphasize Black artists’ resilience over the aesthetic impact of their...

Capturing the natural beauty of coastal landscapes and the delicate play of light on water, this volume celebrates impressionist depictions of nautical and beachside life. The impressionists were forever inspired by the sea, which Claude Monet...

Billy Brown, 2023 winner of the Witmer Stone Award for Best Ornithological Book of the Year from the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club Do snakes and salamanders fascinate you or make you squeamish? Have you ever listened closely to the birds chirping...

The must-have guide for all artists who need to realistically draw clothing! In Morpho: Clothing Folds and Creases, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella presents a unique approach to learning to draw clothing. By connecting the underlying anatomy to...

The must-have guide for all artists who draw the human figure! This small, portable book presents a unique perspective on the head, face, and neck for artists to study and implement in their drawing work. In this book, artist and teacher Michel...

The must-have guide for all artists who draw the human figure! In Morpho: Hands and Feet, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella presents a unique approach to learning to draw the human body. In this book, Lauricella focuses exclusively on the hands and...

Considered a founding father of modern painting, Vincent van Gogh is  also one of the most famed tragic figures in art history. This  comprehensive introduction brings together a detailed account of the artist's life with a complete catalog of...

Jean-Claude Lebensztejn’s history of the urinating figure in art, Pissing Figures 1280–2014, is at once a scholarly inquiry into an important visual motif, and a ribald statement on transgression and limits in works of art in general...

The Arena Chapel in Padua was completed in 1303; Giotto, then considered the preeminent painter in Italy, was commissioned to paint it in 1306. The resulting fresco cycle, detailing the history, birth, life, and death of Christ, ranks among the greatest...

Selections from Romaine Brooks’s unpublished memoir No Pleasant Memories expose the psyche and practice of this underrecognized queer, female artist.   Most known for her bold and darkly painted portraits, Brooks was revolutionary in her...

Charles Baudelaire, considered a father of modern poetry, wrote some of the most daring and influential prose of the nineteenth century. Prior to publishing the international bestseller Les Fleurs du mal (1857), he was already notable as a forthright...

Written between 1913 and 1929, revolutionary years in art history, Dix Portraits conveys the deep human engagement between an artist and her subject. The artist book unites Stein’s ten portraits in prose with sketches by five artists: Pablo...

Derek Jarman's Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love.   “For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions.” —Derek Jarman   Originally...

“Criticism is our censorship . . .” So begins one of the greatest invectives against criticism ever written by an artist. Paul Gauguin wrote “Racontars de rapin” only months before he died in 1903, but the essay remained...

Long overlooked in Proust’s posthumously published writings, Chardin and Rembrandt, written when he was only twenty-four years old, not only reemphasizes the importance of visual art to his development, but contains the seeds of his later work...

Translated into English for the first time, On Contemporary Art, a speech by the renowned novelist César Aira, was delivered at a 2010 colloquium in Madrid dedicated to bridging the gap between writing and the visual arts.   On...

Never before translated into English, Rainer Maria Rilke’s fascinating Letters to a Young Painter, written toward the end of his life between 1920 and 1926, is a surprising companion to his infamous Letters to a Young Poet, earlier correspondence...

The Japanese woodblock print showcased breathtaking landscapes, blush-inducing erotica, ghosts and demons that torment the living, and made sumo wrestlers and kabuki actors into rock stars. This book reveals the most exceptional prints from 1710–1925,...

How medieval Gothic art inspired a generation. Gothic Modern illuminates the pivotal discovery of medieval Gothic art for Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, and their artist contemporaries. It explores their deep attraction to the Gothic art of...

Showcases some of the most stunning treasures from the dynasty that created the Taj Mahal The Great Mughals presents, for the first time, the opulent, internationalist culture of Mughal Hindustan in the age of its greatest emperors: Akbar (r...

A sweeping overview of poetic compositions from the beloved American postwar painter known for her groundbreaking and inventive approach to abstraction. Celebrated among the second generation of postwar American abstract painters, Helen Frankenthaler...

In this exploration of contemporary photography, David Levi Strauss questions the concept that “seeing is believing”. Identifying a recent shift in the dominance of photography, David Levi Strauss looks at the power of the medium in the age of...

This Is Not a Book Everyday enigma from Belgium's leading Surrealist From men in bowler hats, floating in the sky, to a painting of a pipe above the caption "this is not a pipe", René Magritte (1898–1967) created an echo chamber of object and image, name...

An accessible, inspirational, and engaging introductory survey of LGBTQIA+ photography, as told through the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Drawing on one of the oldest and largest photography collections in the world, Calling the...

A magnificently illustrated oversized book that uses art to illuminate the lives of medieval women, from peasants to queens Medieval women ruled over kingdoms, abbeys, and households; produced stunning works of art and craft; and did the hard work that...

This expanded and revised edition celebrates the work of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui by exploring the artist's life and the trajectory of his remarkable career. El Anatsui: Art and Life by Susan Mullin Vogel is the essential resource on the Ghanaian...

The product of more than 30 years of research, this astounding and authoritative volume reveals the political metaphors underpinning El Anatsui’s magnificent abstract sculpture Authored by two acclaimed scholars, Okwui Enwezor and Chika...