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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...

It was a dappled and daubed harbor scene that gave Impressionism its  name. When Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet was exhibited in April  1874, critics seized upon the work’s title and its loose stylistic rendering of light and motion...

Celebrate the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s world class Arms and Armor collection and the release of our new book with a special offer for Members only.  For a limited time, members will receive a free enamel helmet pin with the purchase of Arms...

American Furniture, 1650–1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the first publication dedicated to one of the finest collections of its type in the country. Best known for furniture by artisans from Philadelphia and southeastern...

This is the perfect book for anyone who likes to keep a diary or journal. Start your journey into the world of personal documentation. Broken into three sections: 'Learning to See,' 'Observing, Collecting, Drawing!.' and 'Crafting Your Visual Language,'...

A career guide for artists, covering everything they need to know about building a successful business after graduating. You have the artistic talent, but do you know how to make a success of it? The  thing they don't teach you in art school is just...

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was the first female representative of Impressionism. Her early works are mostly watercolors and pastels, but she later progressed to oils.  She developed a technique of transcribing her drawings onto her canvases and then...

Eliot Porter masterfully created color photographs of the New England woods to pair with the writings of Henry David Thoreau. Both Porter and Thoreau, although they lived a century apart, worked endlessly to  preserve nature and protect it from man...

A beautifully produced gift book for gardeners and art lovers everywhere: a selection of Vincent van Gogh’s garden and flower paintings and drawings. Vincent van Gogh never owned a garden, but throughout his career he painted and drew outdoor...

A beautifully produced book for art lovers and nature enthusiasts illuminating van Gogh’s belief that painting should “celebrate the finest qualities of nature” Vincent van Gogh felt a profound empathy with the natural environment and...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir put people into the center of his painting. His compositions showed people embracing the pleasures of life, dancing, and  enjoying outings in Paris. He created special atmospheres full of  summer warmth and lightness,...

By Katy Friedland and Marla K. Shoemaker An art museum is a magical place. What will you find inside? This playful primer features 37 full-color illustrations of paintings, sculpture, tapestries, prints, photographs, and installations from the...

This captivating collection of Vincent van Gogh’s letters opens a window into the mind of one of history’s greatest artists. Giving rare insight into his complicated relationships with family, friends, and other fellow artists, the letters...

Over the next five years, what do you really want to do? Who do you really want to be? Filled with examples from past and present leaders, thought-provoking activities, and real-life examples, this book offers fuel for embracing the possibilities in...

365 days of creativity and exercises to help you look at the world differently and open up your imagination to what could be. Filled with creative goals and colorful daily exercises that you can complete right in the book. Learn new techniques and be...

By Danielle Krysa Unleash your inner artist with this beautiful guided sketchbook, full of brand new creative projects, blank work pages, and illuminating bios of female artists, from the author of A Big Important Art Book (Now with Women). Full of...

By Andrea D'Aquino Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an influential and award-winning sculptor, a beloved figure in the Bay Area art world, and a devoted activist who advocated tirelessly for arts education. This lushly illustrated book by collage artist Andrea...

By Sven Volker We start with a single tree: 1. As we turn the page, we are presented  with a sum doubling the number on the page before it: 1+1 = 2; 2+2 = 4;  4+4 = 8. In this way, we reach a million (actually 1,048,576) within 40  pages...

Almost Lost Arts features the stories of 20 artisans who have devoted their lives to preserving traditional techniques.  From globe makers and book menders to cassette tape manufacturers and  neon sign makers, the profiled artisans represent a...

 A joyful collaboration between old friends David Byrne and Maira Kalman, American Utopia offers readers an antidote to cynicism, bursting with pathos, humanism, and hope, it features his words and lyrics brought to life with more than 150 of her...

The Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums encompasses over 2,500 of the world’s rarest pigments. Museum director Edward Forbes started the collection at the turn of the 20th century, in order to preserve...

Enjoy a rare glimpse into the actions of a working artist. Beginning in 1970, Anni Albers filled her graph-paper notebook regularly until 1980. This previously unpublished document of her working process contains intricate drawings for her large body of...

This bookmark, complete with red tassel, keeps your page while you read about knights in shining armor. This bookmark is based on one of the few complete, or reasonably complete, European field armors surviving from the beginning of the sixteenth century...

In a compact, reader-friendly format, this volume traces a spectacular history of queer life and creativity in the modern age. It traces the rich visual legacy of art's relationship to Queer culture, from the emergence of homosexuality as an identity in...

This lavishly illustrated and super-condensed history of world art is  the perfect gift for any art lover. A pocket-sized book bursting with  900 illustrations, it takes the reader from the beginnings of art in  prehistory to the...

While it is considered by many artists to be a pure and simplistic form of expression, abstract art is also often thought of as vague or exceedingly theoretical. This new installment in the Art Essentials  series demystifies the concept and history...

It is often forgotten just how provocative and unsettling impressionist canvases seemed when they were first exhibited in 1874. Critics,  professional artists, and gallery visitors alike were shocked to  encounter the unorthodox paintings on...

Art lovers can list history’s most important art objects, but what many  don’t know are the dramatic, funny, and sometimes bizarre stories behind  these most famous works. Spanning the last 500 years of art history,  this book revisits...

Looking at pictures can be an exciting or moving experience, but some pictures—often the most rewarding—require some explanation before they can be fully understood. Delving into the origins, designs, and themes  of over one hundred...

Modern Art guides the reader through individual movements  from Impressionism to Conceptual Art, situated within five broader  chronological eras. Starting with Impressionism in 1860, art historian  Amy Dempsey explains the essentials of...

Pop Art refers to a post-war movement connecting art with  popular culture. Billboard signs, comic books, and movie stars were just  some of the subjects chosen by pop artists, such as Andy Warhol, Roy  Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and...

Street art is a phenomenon and subculture movement that reaches from the darkest urban backstreets to the most glamorous international art  fairs. Despite having earned a place in the canon of twentieth-century  art history, its qualifications...

Surrealism was launched as a literary and artistic movement by French  poet Andre Breton in 1924, and by the time of his death in 1966 it had  become one of the most popular and recognizable art movements of the  twentieth century...

Iconography, or the study of symbols—be they animals, artifacts, plants,  geometric shapes, or gestures—is an essential aspect of interpreting  art. One of the most consistent features of human society throughout  time has been the use of...

By Flavia Frigeri In 1971, in an essay that has now become one of the touchstones of feminist art history, Linda Nochlin raised the question heard round the world: “Why have there been no great women artists?” Since the 1970s, as a result of this kind of...

Cats, cats, and more cats! Expressive or aloof, affectionate or enigmatic, cats have complicated characters that make them compelling artists' muses. Artful Cats explores the quirky and charming relationships of artists with their cats in 130 rarely seen...

This first installment in Skira and Jack Shainman Gallery's five-volume  publication project on Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017) presents for the  first time the artist's works on paper. These images—of flowers and  plants, bananas, a...

Our lives are filled with objects. Everyday things used in everyday settings, they are our constant companions. As such, writes Soetsu Yanagi, they should be made with care and built to last, treated with respect and even affection. They should be...

By Paul Franklin Brancusi & Duchamp: The Art of Dialogue explores the  aesthetic dialogue between Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) and Marcel  Duchamp (1887–1968), two of the most inimitable artists of the 20th  century. Brancusi and...

In 1956, TIME magazine called him one of the defining “form-givers of the 20th century.”  Today, Marcel Breuer remains a locus classicus of modernism for architects and designers alike.  From his landmark tubular furniture to “binuclear”...

Imagine life in Edo, Tokyo, from the 17th-19th century. In the early modern period there were many Ukiyo-e shops which sold woodblock prints displaying then-current styles and fashions much like our fashion photography and magazines today. Each Ukiyo-e...

By Amy Novesky and Isabelle Arsenault Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) was a world-renowned modern artist noted for her sculptures made of wood, steel, stone, and cast rubber. Her most famous spider sculpture, Maman, stands more than 30 feet high. Just as...

How can a broken artifact represent a city? The Liberty Bell cracked on the very first attempt to make it sound, and had to be recast twice and remolded with additional copper to improve its alloy. Today, it hangs in  Independence Hall, where it...

Cy Twombly's first visit to Italy as a  young man ignited a lifelong passion for classical culture that is  everywhere present in his art. Taking on myths and heroes as personal  guides, he created a psychologically complex dialogue with...

Designs for Different Futures records the concrete ideas and abstract dreams of designers, artists, academics, and scientists exploring how design might reframe our futures, socially, ethically, and aesthetically. Encompassing nearly one hundred...

By Marion Denchars Draw or paint your self-portrait like Frida Kahlo, or learn how to crayon etch and make art inspired by Paul Klee. This book is filled with artist biographies and exercises based on countless artists. Draw, paint, and collage right in...

In a series of simple but beautifully illustrated steps, and with a focus on drawing the human form, our expert author describes and  demonstrates all the essentials and more. You will discover how to plan  your studies and plot your equipment;...

One of our customer favorites, Drawn from Life is finally back in print! This ideally shaped and sized book offers bite-size lessons that will help anyone master the classic practice of life drawing. Over 100 pieces of art by contemporary artists...

By Janis Mink  When is a urinal no longer a urinal? When Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) declared it to be art. The uproar that greeted the French artist’s Fountain  (1917), a porcelain urinal installed in a gallery, sent shock waves  through...

By Helen Molesworth In this essay, curator Helen Molesworth  pinpoints the significance of the return of the handmade in the later  years of Duchamp’s oeuvre, positioning this paradigmatic shift away from  the readymade as the focal point...

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...

Take an intimate promenade through Paris with some 500 images from Eugène Atget. Down main streets and side streets, through courtyards, arcades, and the city’s 20 arrondissements, we find a unique portrait of a beloved city and the making...

Acclaimed as the “father of skyscrapers,” the quintessentially American icon Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect of aspiration. He believed in giving cultivated American life its fitting architectural equivalent and applied his idealism to...

Of all the riches of the sixteenth-century European  nobleman, none spoke more powerfully of his heroism, wealth, and taste  than his armor, clothing, and weapons. Drawing on the Victoria and  Albert Museum’s popular arms and armor...

Renowned designer and professional hell-raiser James Victore wants to drag you off your couch and throw you headfirst into a life of bold creativity. He'll guide you through all the twists, trials, and triumphs  of starting your creative career,...

This pocket-size book divines auspicious signs and offers whimsical insights into all things color. Those hoping to brighten their fortunes will learn the portents of chromatic combinations, the meaning behind color auras, and the astrology of various...

 A visual and literary feast, The History of Chivalry and Armour  is a study of medieval knights in all their grandeur, fully displaying  their instruments of siege, ornaments, and entertainments. Reproduced  from a rare...

This comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of Louise and Walter Arensberg’s groundbreaking collection of modern and pre-Columbian art takes readers room by room, wall by wall, object by object through the couple’s Los Angeles home...

By Anne Monahan West Chester, PA's own Horace Pippin was arguably the most successful African American artist of his day. Pippin (1888–1946) taught himself to paint in the 1930s and quickly  earned international renown for depictions of World War I,...

An irreverent book of radically honest advice by renowned fashion arbiter and legendary window dresser Simon Doonan. Through  his unconventional wisdom and singular storytelling, Simon Doonan is  the ideal instructor to help readers find - and...

This engaging book offers an introduction to and overview of armor in  Europe from the Middle Ages through the 17th century, focusing in  particular on the 16th century when plate armor reached its peak of  stylistic beauty and functional...

 A bookmark perfect for holding the pages in your cookbook.  This Iznik floral is a detail taken from a 17th century Turkish dish in the collection.   Iznik pottery, named after the town of Iznik in western Anatolia where it was made,...

The Japanese woodblock print is a phenomenon with no Western equivalent,  one where breathtaking landscapes exist alongside blush-inducing  erotica; where demons and otherworldly creatures torment the living; and  where sumo wrestlers,...

The King of the Golden River tells the tale of the Black brothers: the kind-natured eleven-year-old Gluck and his two nasty older brothers, Hans and Schwartz. For Gluck, play is cleaning the  floors, and his education consists of a wholesome...

The knight is the supreme warrior of the Middle Ages. Fully armored and mounted on a magnificent charger, he seems invincible. Honor and  glory await him as, guided by the chivalric code, he fights with lance  and sword. This carefully...

This is the fascinating story William Marshal who negotiated the  brutal realities of medieval warfare and the conflicting demands of  chivalric ideals, and who against the odds defeated the joint French and  rebel forces in arguably the...

This elegant monograph was published on the occasion of the opening of the new galleries of South Asian art, October, 2016. Two shrine hangings, called pichhwais, and depicting scenes from the life of Krishna were a focal point of the new galleries...

By Alisa Wismer The world is filled with all kinds of different art! In this book we're  going to take a closer look at modern art. From the bright colors to  bold and modern shapes, we'll learn about some of the most famous modern...

More than 300 photographs by Lewis W. Hine, whose trailblazing documentary images of early 20th-century working conditions helped to transform United States labor laws. This book covers all eras of Hine’s work, including his pictures of  child...

Louise Bourgeois' tapestry and needlepoint work deals with reparation in  both a literal and metaphorical sense. In many of the works, fragmented  tapestries are pieced together and repaired to create new sculptural  forms. The recurring...

Do you find yourself wanting to make art every day, but too busy to make it happen? If yes, then this is the book for you. This weekly planner will help motivate and get you into the habit of creating daily, with fifty-two weeks of tutorials and...

Editor: Anne D'Harnoncourt Published in connection with the 1973 retrospective exhibition "Marcel Duchamp,"  co-curated by Anne d'Harnoncourt of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and  Kynaston McShine of The Museum of Modern Art. This...

Edited by  Susanne M.I. Kaufmann and Stefan Banz   As the inventor of the Readymade and a founder of  conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp’s work is still provoking discussions about what defines art. Accompanying the first exhibition of...

 By Mathieu Mercier  "Everything  important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase," Duchamp  said in 1952: finally that suitcase is available to all. One of the most important and enigmatic  pieces of modernist art,...

Michael R. Taylor (Author) with essays by Andrew Lins, Melissa S. Meighan, and Beth A. Price, Ken Sutherland, Scott Homolka, and Elena Torok In his early thirties, Marcel Duchamp convinced everyone that he had abandoned making art in favor of playing...

Michael R. Taylor (Author) with essays by Andrew Lins, Melissa S. Meighan, and Beth A. Price, Ken Sutherland, Scott Homolka, and Elena Torok In his early thirties, Marcel Duchamp convinced everyone that he had abandoned making art in favor of playing...

 Edited by Alessandra Bellavita, Jose Castañal, Oona Doyle, Joachim Pflieger. Text by Paul B. Franklin, Cécile Debray  This monograph on Duchamp’s Porte-bouteilles, or Bottle Rack, presents the Porte-bouteilles from Robert Rauschenberg’s...

By Francis M. Naumann, Bradley Bailey and Jennifer Shahade Marcel Duchamp was both an artist and a chess player, but until now,  little was known of his chess activities. In analyzing Duchamp's  games--seeing how he reacted in specific...

Ever since his self-proclamation as part of the “New York Five,”  Richard Meier has risen through one top commission after another to the dizzy heights of architectural stardom. From Madison Square Garden to Shenzhen, China, his sleek, luminously...

By Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober This keepsake collection of board books from the bestselling Mini  Masters series brings the world's great French masterpieces down to  size. Each title pairs simple verse with some of the most beloved...

A hairless, ghostly figure on a bridge. The sky orange-red above him.  His hands raised to his ears, his mouth wide in a haunting wail. In painting The Scream, Edvard Munch created Mona Lisa for our times. The shriek of his iconic figure...

Edited by Dilys E. Blum; with essays by Dilys E. Blum and Mary Schoeser, and a contribution by Julie Schafler Dale This is the first publication to consider art to wear, also known as wearable art, as a discrete American movement that mirrored the...

Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) was the last great woodblock print master of the Ukiyo-e tradition, and One Hundred Aspects of the Moon is regarded as his greatest achievement. The only complete set of the series, in the collection of the Museum of International...

The first artist to "take a line for a walk"!  Paul Klee: Life and Work, draws on a wealth of  new resources including the Klee family’s archives, much of which is  published here for the first time. Life and work are truly...

"Our Philadelphia, as is all our history, is made of these moments:  photographs and stories. And in our effort to find and delineate these  moments we also recognized that we approached a sense of place. Circling  ever closer to a shared...

A tool to bring sanity to our most intense technological relationship. The dark truth is that it has become very hard to find anyone (and certainly anything) more interesting than one’s smartphone. This perplexing and troubling realization has for most...

Throughout history, artists and citizens have turned to protest art as a means of demonstrating social and political discontent. From the earliest broadsheets in the 1500s to engravings, photo-lithographs, prints, posters, murals, graffiti, and political...

The publication will feature new, unpublished material related to the concept, filming, post-production, and installation of a new work by artist Rachel Rose (American, b. 1986). This new work, jointly commissioned and acquired by the Philadelphia Museum...

In 1930, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the collection of  medieval and Renaissance sculpture and decorative arts assembled by  Edmond Foulc (1828–1916). Foulc’s beautiful Paris residence was an important gathering place for...

Painter, and Marxist activist, Diego Rivera was not just the husband of Frida Kahlo.  He is renowned as much for his active politics as for his monumental mural paintings. This introduction explores his unique and visionary renderings of a modern...

Considered by many to be the founder of modern sculpture, Rodin created sculptures that would enjoy a lasting renown, including The Kiss, The Thinker, and The Burghers of Calais.  Philadelphia's own Benjamin Franklin Parkway is graced by a museum...

Shimmering, pulsating color masses characterize the Abstract Expressionist masterpieces of Mark Rothko. Like no other artist in his generation, Rothko developed his own stylistic vocabulary, creating ceiling-high canvases that were to be experienced as...

By Timothy Rub and Amanda Sroka In a sustained exploration of the possibilities of abstraction, Sean  Scully (b. 1945) has created a rich body of work throughout his 50-year  career. Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas sets his entire output...

In 1919, the state art school in Weimar was reopened as the Bauhaus,  under the direction of Walter Gropius and with a radical new teaching  approach. Four years later, the first Bauhaus exhibition was held,  presenting the school’s novel...

To explore the Tarot is to explore ourselves, to be reminded of the  universality of our longing for meaning, for purpose and for a  connection to the divine. This 600-year-old tradition reflects not only a  history of seekers, but our...

In 1119, a  small band of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade set up a new religious order in Jerusalem, which was now  in Christian hands. These were the first Knights Templar, elite warriors who swore vows...

Contained in this tome you'll find hundreds of jaw-dropping images of otherworldly shrines, whimsical cartoons, grotesque creatures,  nightmares and dreamscapes. You will encounter impossible symbolism, encrypted glyphs, and the yearning visual...

The Bauhaus, the legendary school in Dessau, Germany, transformed  architecture and design around the world. This book broke new ground when first published in 1991 by introducing psychoanalysis, geometry, early childhood education, and popular...

Active from the late 1700s through the early twentieth century, the Peale family was America’s first artistic dynasty. This overview of the art of the Peales presents more than 160 works in a variety of media from the renowned collection of the...