Books

In the wake of the 1910-20 Revolution, Mexico emerged as a center of modern art, closely watched around the world. This books highlights the achievements of the tres grandes (three greats), Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros,...

The impressionist artists accorded great importance to family life, often portraying their own mothers, wives, and offspring in scenes of maternity and childhood. The impressionist masters were known for their close relationships; peers, family, art...

Explore the charmed world of flora with this delightful flower book, part of the Pocket Nature series. Learn when and where to look for wildflowers, how to identify different varieties, and what flowers can teach us, from fireweed's resilience...

FOR BEEKEEPERS AND BEE ENTHUSIASTS: This petite and brightly colored book will appeal to anyone interested in bees and beekeeping, whether they’re just starting their journey or well on their way. Don’t let the size fool you—this compact bee book is...

Barkley L. Hendricks is rightly known as one of the foremost American painters of the late 20th century. His six-decade artistic oeuvre encompasses not only portraits but also includes evocative landscapes, hard-edged geometric abstractions, lush...

The most comprehensive, fully illustrated book on women designers ever published - a celebration of more than 200 women product designers from the early twentieth century to the present day. This glorious visual celebration of the most incredible and...

A unique edition of bright texts, brilliant images, and historic reprints, this kit provides everything that both beginners and advanced Tarot users might need and want to read cards for themselves and to study and experience this cultural gem in all its...

This edition reprints Keisai Eisen and Utagawa Hiroshige's legendary series The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō, a stunning representation of the historic route between Edo and Kyoto. This vivid tapestry of 19th-century Japan is in equal parts a...

Natural science buffs, graphics professionals, and anyone interested in the visual expression of data will be fascinated by this tribute to Fritz Kahn, the German infographics pioneer. He demystified complex scientific ideas and his creative concepts...

William Morris was a polymath designer, writer, artist, and social activist, associated with England's Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as well as Arts and Crafts movement. His prolific design work included tiles, embroidery, tapestries, wallpaper, and carpets...

Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was a clerk in the Paris customs service who dreamed of becoming a famous artist. At the age 49, he decided to give it a try. At first, Rousseau’s bright, bold paintings of jungles and exotic flora and fauna were dismissed as...

A key figure in the international avant-garde, Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was at once an extraordinary painter and leading art theoretician whose influence resonates to this day. Coining the term “Neo-plasticism”, he pursued a style of painting composed...

Enter a world of ravishing light and color. English Romanticist J. M. W. Turner transformed the essence of landscape painting from serene contemplative scenes to pictures pulsating with life, as if the sun itself were gleaming out of his canvases...

Renowned for his distinctive, elongated female nudes, Amedeo Modigliani is a legend of early modernism. His unique figuration corresponded to his own personal idea of beauty, but drew upon a rich variety of visual influences, including contemporary...

Struggling artist turned icon of the modern, urban experience, Edward Hopper is most famed for his haunting nocturnal diner scene Nighthawks. This book introduces his mastery of place, mood, and melancholy through vivid color juxtapositions; stark,...

Exquisite cloth-bound edition of the classic art-history text – the ideal gift for every art connoisseur and student. For more than 70 years Sir Ernst Gombrich’s The Story of Art has been a global bestseller – with more than 8 million copies...

For Papier Tigre “the Earth is blue like an orange” (Paul Eluard). The relationship between shapes and colors provides an opportunity for the clever mingling of the figurative and the abstract. Sometimes unexpected colors come to life and displace a too...

 An updated edition of this indispensable reference, surveying the history of textiles from twenty-five thousand years ago to the present.  The history of textiles, more than that of any other artifact, is a history of human ingenuity. From the...

Reissued to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, this book explores one of the most important art schools of the last hundred years. The Bauhaus, a school of art and design founded in Germany in 1919, informed the aesthetic...

An extraordinary synthesis of more than a century’s worth of art across Central and South America, Latin American Art Since 1900 covers everyone from popular figures such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, to a wide range of other artists who are less...

A new edition of the groundbreaking book by Whitney Chadwick maps the complete history of women artists from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to today. Art historian Whitney Chadwick’s acclaimed bestselling study challenges the assumption that great...

 A Stonewall Book Award Honor Book "The warmth of everyday gender euphoria is burnished to brilliant radiance" (BCCB, starred review) in this joyous picture book about a day in the life of a non-binary child. A child gets ready for a wonderful day...

In this modern fairy tale, a strong, brave maiden is invited to attend the prince's royal ball, but at the dance, she ends up finding true love in a most surprising place. "The prince is smart and strong," she confided in her mother. "But if I'm being...

Are caregiving and creative labor fundamentally at odds? Is it possible for mothers to attend to both? Few women artists feature prominently in the history of art, and even fewer who are mothers. How are motherhood and artmaking at play and at odds in...

Carefully transcribed from vintage table, dowry, and bed linens, this treasury of easy-to-use patterns allows today's stitchers to enrich their projects with original 1800s touches. Sharing the result of her years combing dusty attics, archives,...

At its root, this is a story of family and community. Vibrant illustrations capture the warmth and unity of Black families and Black communities in a portrait of beautiful joy. Both a story of celebration and a commemoration of freedom, this book honors...

The definitive collection of Robert Mapplethorpe’s flower photographs in a sophisticated new edition. Robert Mapplethorpe is one of the twentieth century’s most important artists, known for his ground-breaking and provocative work. He studied painting,...

 A unique survey of 350 artworks by a global and diverse array of LGBTQ+ artists – many underrecognized and overlooked – from the last 50 years Though the Stonewall Riots might now be shorthand for the start of the gay rights movement, so much of...

With his colorful illustrations, playful humor, and inclusive storytelling, beloved author Todd Parr has long been a favorite among young readers and caregivers. His books promote an essential message of love and acceptance that is inspiring, empowering,...

Riley is Papa’s princess and Daddy’s dragon. She loves her two fathers! When Riley’s classmate asks her which dad is her real one, Riley is confused. She doesn’t want to have to pick one or the other.  This heartwarming story shows there are lots of...

Heather’s favorite number is two. She has two arms, two legs, two pets—and two mommies. When Heather goes to school for the first time, someone asks her about her daddy, but Heather doesn’t have a daddy. Then something interesting happens. When Heather...

From Slave Ship to Harvard is the true story of an African American family in Maryland over six generations. The author has reconstructed a unique narrative of black struggle and achievement from paintings, photographs, books, diaries, court records,...

 Three women led a fashion revolution and turned themselves into international style celebrities. Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, had...

Black Philadelphians have shaped Philadelphia history since colonial times. In Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape, Amy Cohen recounts notable aspects of the Black experience in Philadelphia from the late 1600s to the 1960s and how this history...

A bold, readable, and beautifully illustrated introduction to Islamic art and architecture, this renowned book is now available in an updated and revised edition featuring color illustrations throughout. Including over a thousand years of history and...

The updated edition of this comprehensive overview of outsider art, distinguished by its wider international scope and inclusion of global developments since 2000.  Outsider art is the work produced outside the mainstream of modern art by...

A revised edition of this classic survey that presents a thorough overview of Georgia O’Keeffe’s life and work.  Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) was a major figure in American art for seven decades. Throughout that long and...

A new edition of a seminal book on the history of graphic design in the twentieth century by one of the leading authorities in the field. The story of graphic design is one of the most exciting and important developments in twentieth-century visual...

An overview of ecologically conscious contemporary art that responds to today’s environmental crisis, from species extinction to climate change. Art and Climate Change collects a wide range of artistic responses to our current ecological emergency...

 An illuminating and authoritative survey of body art by a world expert on the subject This informed and accessible book explores the wide-ranging history of body art, from its expression of tribal affinities and cultural identity to its role in...

The fourth edition of the essential introduction to digital art, one of contemporary art’s most exciting and dynamic forms of practice. Digital art, along with the technological developments of its medium, has rapidly evolved from the "digital...

As Art Director for Muji since 2002, Japanese graphic designer Kenya Hara (born 1958) and his aesthetic of pared-back, beautifully functional objects have taken the world by (quiet) storm. With Kenya Hara: Designing Japan, the designer presents his...

This gorgeous edition brings together 50 of the finest medieval bible manuscripts from the Austrian National Library. With examples from every epoch of the Middle Ages, the collection explores visualizations of the bible in various theological and...

At first glance, Walton Ford’s large-scale, highly detailed watercolors of animals recall the prints of 19th-century illustrators John James Audubon and Edward Lear. A closer look reveals a complex and disturbingly anthropomorphic universe, full of...

A gorgeous facsimile of an ultrarare, canonical volume from the pioneer of infographics, analyzing “fundamental trends in the social, political and economic life of humanity.” Otto Neurath’s famous Modern Man in the Making, first published by Alfred A...

This is the first children’s art book to spotlight the fascinating world of lithography —exploring the techniques that make it work and revealing the secrets behind this truly artistic profession.  Combining science, art, and history, Meet the...

'An excellent, encouraging introduction to French home cooking by an author who combines the best culinary qualities of Gallic versions of Irma Rombauer and Fannie Farmer, with just a dash of Ratatouille’s beloved Chef Gusteau.' – Library Journal,...

The revered tradition of botanical illustration dates back to the Renaissance. It emerged from the desire to catalog nature in its unpredictable splendor, and the process demanded the most precise and talented of artists. With a remarkable skill that...

The other knights have told him that there's no such thing as dragons, but he says, “Forsooth! There is TOO such a thing!” You just need to know where to look! And luckily, this knight has something very special that no one else has – a map that says:...

Best known for their superlative oils on canvas, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and their contemporaries also regularly used paper as a base for their works. They experimented with materials including watercolor, gouache, pencil, ink...

Michelin Green Guide Short Stays Philadelphia presents the city's top attractions for a 24-hour visit, a weekend or longer. You'll find a choice of restaurants for any budget. This pocket-size guide helps you do it all with its detailed maps, recommended...

Larry Neal, a poet, dramatist, and critic, was a founding figure of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s in New York. Writing as the arts editor for Liberator magazine, a radical journal published in Harlem, Neal called for Black artists to...

“I exaggerate, I sometimes make changes to the subject, but I still don’t invent the whole of painting; on the contrary, I find it ready-made—but to be untangled—in the real world.” —Vincent van Gogh to Émile Bernard The painter and poet Émile Bernard’s...

From 1928 to 1930, Tokyo publisher Ars issued The Complete Commercial Artist: a fully illustrated journal of commercial design for both commercial retail spaces and print design. Featuring countless original designs, its 24 volumes were dedicated to...

In the middle of the 20th century, Pierre Desfontaines, cousin of Louis Ernest Ladurée, created the first Ladurée macaron by having the genius to stick two macaron cookies together and fill them with a flavorful ganache. Ever since then,...

More than eighty of the loveliest, most tranquil, and sometimes hidden places in Paris are celebrated in this charming guidebook. Quiet Corners of Paris is a beautifully illustrated peek into eighty-one often overlooked, always beautiful, locales:...

One of the founders of the Impressionist movement while also one of its most ruthless critics, too bohemian for the bourgeois and too bourgeois for the artists, Edgar Degas was a man of paradoxes. A loner, he only loved one woman without ever courting...

From the acclaimed biographer and author of Balzac’s Omelette, an engaging new work on the life of “the father of Impressionism” and the role his Jewish background played in his artistic creativity. The celebrated painter Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)...

An intimate look at one of the most radical and groundbreaking printmakers of all time, the American Impressionist Mary Cassatt. This book examines the radical experimentation and innovation of one of the finest and most creative printmakers of the 19th...

Mary Cassatt's tender and profound paintings redefined portraiture and broke down barriers for women in art—both as artists and as subjects. This collection focuses on Cassatt's insightful portrayal of women and children living their everyday lives...

In 1879, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro collaborated to found a periodical that would feature their prints. For much of their careers, this unlikely trio of artists used the medium of printmaking to inspire and challenge each other, and...

Historic Philadelphia has long yielded archaeological treasures from its past. Excavations required by the National Historic Preservation Act have recovered pottery shards, pots, plates, coins, bones, and other artifacts relating to early life in the...

In just two decades, Raphael Santi painted his way to legendary greatness. This essential introduction to the artist we know simply as Raphael presents the mastery of figures, forms, and space hat secured his place not only alongside Michelangelo and...

Eating wild edibles is in our genes, and it can be healthy fun! It’s seasonal, sufficient, varied, and provides plenty of nutrients. It yields the satisfaction born of food independence and competence. There’s no packaging, no labeling, no advertising,...

A new study of Mary Cassatt that explores the centrality of work to both her inventive technical practice and her distinctive approach to modern subjects.    In her sensitive depictions of the social, intellectual, and professional lives of...

Melissa Shook (April 18, 1939 – August 27, 2020) was an American photographer, artist and educator. Her photographs are part of an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Invitation Only: Photographs by Barbara Crane, Melissa Shook, and Carol...

Teach the youngest learners their ABCs with Mudpuppy’s Andy Warhol ABCs board book featuring the artist’s bright and colorful artwork. A beautiful, artful board book for children and parents alike.   Author/illustrator: Andy Warhol Board...

Creative young children will see themselves and the world around them in a fresh light in this charming story about an artistic soul. Through setbacks and triumphs, our young hero adds color and life to a drab gray city, bringing beauty to those who...

With an elegant and simple approach, this thought-provoking concept book shows young readers that everything in the world can be seen from infinite perspectives. Each page compares colors, shapes, and objects in relation to each other. A triangle that...

Discover Her Art invites young art lovers and artists to learn about painting through the lives and masterpieces of 24 women from the 16th to the 20th century. In each chapter, readers arrive at a masterwork, explore it with an artist’s eye, and learn...

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 367 exquisite hand-colored plates of the Hortus Eystettensis, published in 1613 with elaborate descriptions to record the palatial gardens in Eichstätt, Bavaria, were a landmark in botanical illustration. This facsimile edition, featuring...

This landmark volume is a gathering of Native North American  contemporary artists, musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, architects,  writers, photographers, designers and more. Conceived by Jeffrey  Gibson, a renowned artist of...

In The Guardians of Art, DC-based collector Dani Levinas brings  together 34 of the most outstanding names in contemporary art  collecting, embracing a diverse range of characters who talk with him  about the motivations behind their drive...

Despite realizing that life is short and that we should enjoy it to  the fullest, it has become increasingly hard for people to find a moment  of peace in the restlessness and hubbub of the modern world.  Nevertheless, there is still...

Ian Lynam's The Impossibility of Silence is a book for artists,  photographers and designers interested in approaching writing about  their vocation and culture. Drawing upon decades of experience as a  writer, designer, artist and...

Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his...

An illustrated history of games, their history and the people who played them, from antiquity to the present. Author: Helen Constantino Fioratti Softcover Publisher: Edizioni Polistampa 2014 174 pages, 9.5" x 6.5" ISBN: 9788859613282

Ideas are not born alone. They come from a process to a large extent organized  and rational but sometimes unconscious and magical. In this book we can enjoy and learn from the creative processes of great graphic designers  and creative voices...

In Remember to Dream!, celebrated curator Hans Ulrich Obrist collects an abundance of thoughts for the day, dreams, drawings, musings, jokes, quotations, questions, answers, poems and puns from some of the world’s greatest contemporary artists, musicians...

Through essays, photo-essays, and a conversation between Black designer Stephen Burks (b. 1969) and the late cultural critic bell hooks, this book contextualizes Burks’s wide-ranging work while exploring design’s influence on politics, society, and...

Beginning with Cesar Ghiselin in 1681, Philadelphia has a long and storied history of silversmithing that includes notable artists such as Joseph Richardson Sr. and Jr., Philip Syng Jr., and Olaf Skoogfors. Celebrating this legacy and showcasing the...

Over a hill, at the end of a road, by a glittering stream that twists and turns stands a farmhouse. Step inside the dollhouse-like interior of Farmhouse and relish in the daily life of the family that lives there, rendered in impeccable,...

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning “pictures of the floating world,” ukiyo-e was a particular woodblock print genre of art that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries...

The best way to experience Philadelphia is by hiking it! Get outdoors with local author and hiking expert Lori Litchman. This full-color guide helps you locate and access the top hikes within 60 miles of Philly. A perfect blend of popular routes and...

Berthe Morisot won over the Impressionists with her talent and became the first woman of the group alongside Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley. Likewise, she was heralded by the greatest writers of her time; in this tribute to her, an anthology...

Three Lines in a Circle tells the history of the peace symbol and how it  became a powerful icon used in marches and movements around the world. One line straight down. One line to the right. One line to the left, then a circle. That was all—just...

Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Final Months offers a unique and impressive overview of the paintings and drawings that Vincent van Gogh created during the last seventy days of his life. He produced no fewer than seventy-four paintings and over thirty...

For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower edge of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a...

Discover a whole new world of dragons in this beautifully illustrated book on the scaliest of magical creatures. From every detail of their wings to the history of their treasure, you'll learn about famous dragons from around the world. The latest...

Created in collaboration with the British Museum, this richly illustrated volume displays the arts, histories, and cultures of Southeast Asia from about 6,000 years ago to the twenty-first century, covering modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,...

We are living in a time when behavioral change is necessary for our health and survival. Yet we find it exceedingly difficult to transform our own habits, let alone those of other people. Enter Naohiro Matsumura, whose powerful new design method is as...

Peter Paul Rubens was the most inventive and prolific northern European artist of his age. This book discusses his life and work in relation to three interrelated themes: spirit, ingenuity, and genius. It argues that Rubens and his reception were pivotal...

Today most of us enjoy the work of famed Renaissance artist Michelangelo by perusing art books or strolling along the galleries of a museum—and the luckier of us have had a chance to see his extraordinary frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...

Pivotal in modern art's move towards abstraction, Piet Mondrian's oeuvre is extraordinarily versatile and complex. Not only did he paint and draw, he also wrote extensively about his thoughts and theories on art and life. Moving from traditional Dutch...

Organized as an inventive abecedarium, On the Necessity of Gardening tells the story of the garden as a rich source of inspiration. Over the centuries, artists, writers, poets and thinkers from Capability Brown to Derek Jarman have each described,...

Building on a technique that has roots in European and American traditions, Black artists have turned to collage as a way to convey how the intersecting facets of their lives combine to make whole individuals. Artists have assembled pieces of paper,...

This book offers a long-overdue reassessment of the career of the Parisian-born artist Marie Laurencin (1883–1956), who moved seamlessly between the Cubist avant-garde and lesbian literary and artistic circles, as well as the realms fashion,...

This miniature bestiary contains some 200 illustrations of more than 160 mythical beings: fire-breathing dragons, mysterious mermaids, sinuous sea serpents, mischievous yokai, and many other wondrous creatures drawn from global folklore and mythology...

Artist, critic and poet Eve Wood has a ribald sense of humor and for decades has had a distinctive presence in the Southern California art world. This is her first monograph, featuring a collection of off-beat, imaginative color studies populated with...