Books

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...

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...

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...

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...

Whether you look at them in awe or in fear, the world of the small but mighty insect is an irreplaceable part of Earth and its ecosystems and is equally strange and wonderful in its own way. Following the incredible success of Botanical Inspiration and...

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...

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...

 This definitive book explores the multidisciplinary career of one of the most experimental and pioneering artists of the 20th century. Encompassing the entirety of Isamu Noguchi’s work in sculpture, ceramics, photography, architecture,...

Widely celebrated as the father of the Studio Furniture Movement, Wharton Esherick is one of the most important furniture designers of the twentieth century. Presenting his preserved hillside house and studio, this book showcases seven decades of...

A richly illustrated monograph on the life and work of Lee Krasner, one of the twentieth century’s most inspiring women artists and a pioneer of abstract expressionism, now available in paperback. In 1984, Lee Krasner (1908–1984) became one of the few...

The first monograph on the overlooked American modernist whose delicate geometric abstractions made brilliant and innovative use of string Balance, motion, suspension and tension form the guiding principles of the work of Sue Fuller (1914–2006), one of...

A scholarly meditation on Reinhardt’s work, bringing together his abstract painting, comics and slide lecture series The second volume of Focal Points takes as its subject the work of American artist Ad Reinhardt (1913–67). An American abstract painter,...

Renowned designers Charles and Ray Eames are amongst the greatest designers of the 20th century. They are, of course, most well known for their groundbreaking and iconic furniture designs, but they also created important, creative, experimental, and...

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:...